The Long Trek Home

Find us on Facebook!

2010-07-06T23:21:00.003+07:00

My goodness it has been a loooong time since this blog was updated. Finally, I figured out how to access this account; we were using it before it was required we have a google login, and being suspicious of google, never upgraded.

Since we migrated to facebook, it seems that most of our sharing / social networking activities has taken place on those pages. Please look us up here:

http://www.facebook.com/jekielek/
http://www.facebook.com/cindy.drukier/

A photo that has become popular

2008-12-19T19:00:00.002+07:00

I took this last year while I should have been practicing the Falun Gong exercises. I think it was worth it. As many people have suggested, there's serenity here.

Labor Camps hidden near Olympic Venues: Maps & driving directions!

2008-08-01T16:27:00.004+07:00

Check out this behind-the-scenes guidebook that gives shows you a side of Beijing the officials definitely DON'T want you to see -- a guide to seven notorious LABOR CAMPS, each nestled in closely to the Olympic venues tens of thousands of tourists will be attending. A little avant-garde sightseeing, anyone?

read more | digg story

From the text:

“When you come to the Olympic Games in Beijing, you will see skyscrapers, spacious streets, modern stadiums and enthusiastic people. You will see the truth, but not the whole truth…. You may not know that the flowers, smiles, harmony and prosperity are built on a base of grievances, tears, imprisonment, torture and blood.”–Open letter by prominent Chinese rights defenders Hu Jia and Teng Biao, September 2007.

When 25,000 reporters arrive in China to cover the Olympic Games, enthusiastic youngsters, glittering venues, primly trimmed parks and state-of-the-art subways will leave a strong impression. As Hu Jia and Teng Biao note above, however, there is another side to the “New China” that the Chinese Communist Party is much less keen on showcasing to the international community.

It is a China of electric cattle prods, of 18 hour work days, of unspeakable torture and humiliation, of religious believers forced to endure endless hours of “thought reform.” It is a China of “re-education through labor” (RTL) camps.

Excerpt from Camp location and directions:

Directions to Labor Camp:

From Tianjin Binhai Airport: Enter Huandao going south for 439 m. Turn West on Huandao for 1.7 km. Turn left on Waihuanxian for 299 m. Turn Right on Jinbindadao for 6.6 km. Turn left on Dongfengqiao for 1.1 km. Turn left on Hongxinglut for 2.2 km. Turn left on Jiefangnanlu for 73 m. Total: 13.1 km

From Tianjin Train Station: Go north west on Jianguodao for 213 m. Turn left on Sanjinglu for 154 m. Turn right on Jinbudao for 190 m. Turn left on Wujinglu for 2.4 km. Turn left on Qufudao for 128m. Turn right on Jiefangnanlu for 1.5 km. Total: 4.6 km

A: Tianjin Binhai Airport: 天津滨海国际机场
B: Tianjin Train Station: 天津站河北区
C: Tianjin Jianxin Labor Camp: 天津建新女子劳教所
D: Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium: 天津奥林匹克中心体育场

DETAILS

Description:
Jianxin Labor Camp of Tianjin City was expanded especially for the purpose of holding Falun Gong adherents. Since the inception of the Sixth Division for female detainees, several hundred practitioners have been detained there. Most were older than fifty years of age, the oldest being seventy-three.

See a lot more at http://www.humanrightstorch.org/news/guide-to-olympic-village-labor-camps/

OLYMPICS Journalist goes after real no-go topic; great sign!

2008-07-29T15:38:00.003+07:00

An aussie journalist in China to cover the Olympics gets the inside scoop on what's REALLY happening with Falun Gong in China. FEW have the guts to go after this topic, as it's the Chinese's regime's #1 taboo issue right now. Well done, Mary-Anne! (and Helen!)

read more | digg story

Pre-Olympic Press Roundup

2008-07-25T07:05:00.005+07:00

If you've been watching the pre-Olympic press as we have, you may have noticed the recent rush of reports about tightened security in Beijing and the outrageous measures the Communist Party is taking to ensure that it is the only party in town come Aug 8. Below we've collected highlights (lowlights?) from some of the news just to help put it all in perspective. This is definitely not the Olympic spirit.

Olympic Supporters Face Banner Blackout
The Age (Australia), July 16
All banners and large flags have been banned from Beijing Olympic venues.
...
Musical instruments, whistles and flash photography have also been banned.

Australian Olympic swimmer Craig Stevens said: "It's just going over the top. The rules are just getting stricter and stupider… You want to see as much support as you can in the crowd because as swimmers you can't hear much. It's going to be strange in the stands."

Journos Come to Grips with Reporting Restrictions
Sunday Star Times (NZ), July 20
For instance, interview a Chinese national in the street without a proper form and you could be thrown in jail for up to 72 hours without anyone notifying your employer, your family or the New Zealand government.

Write too many stories with words or phrases such as "Tibet", "human rights abuse" or "Falun Gong" and you can expect to be a person of interest for the Chinese secret service. China's surveillance experts will filter all outgoing emails for such key words which will be red-flagged and traced back to the laptop that generated them. And the GSM network can be slowed down to monitor outgoing phone call and texts as well.

China: 'Strike hard' against beliefs
From a document obtained by Amnesty International
“We must make efforts to create a harmonious society and a good social environment for successfully holding the 17th Communist Party Congress and the Beijing Olympic Games […] We must strike hard at hostile forces at home and abroad, such as ethnic separatists, religious extremists, violent terrorists and ‘heretical organizations’ like the Falun Gong who carry out destabilizing activities."

Zhou Yongkang, Minister of Public Security, November 2007

Thousands of Falun Gong Adherents Arrested throughout China in Run Up to Olympics
Falun Dafa Information Center Report, July 7, giving details of mass arrests since the above mentioned “strike hard” campaign began:
In recent months, the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDI) has received regular reports from adherents and their families inside China of door-to-door searches and arrests. According to statistics compiled from these reports, there have been at least 8,037 arrests of Falun Gong adherents across 29 provinces, major cities and autonomous regions since December 2007.
...
“The Olympics are being taken as an excuse to put them behind bars for years... A large percentage of people have already been sent to labor camps. The dozens currently filling Beijng’s detention centers are at grave risk of wrongful sentencing and torture.”
FDI spokesperson Erping Zhang.

China jails more Tibetan protesters
Taipei Times, July 12
The article quotes as its source Xinhua, the state-controlled news agency, seen as the mouthpiece of the Communist regime:
China is offering rewards up to 500,000 yuan ($73,000) to anyone who provides information on major security threats during the Olympic Games.
The rewards aim to "mobilize the enthusiasm of the masses in maintaining public security, as well as to control and eliminate hidden dangers to the Olympic Games."
...
Examples of what police are looking for include information on planned terrorist attacks, sabotage by illegal organizations such as Falun Gong, and killings of Olympic-related people and foreigners, Xinhua reported.

Fortress Beijing
Canwest News Service, July 18
Traffic was backed up for two kilometers on expressways and national highways leading into Beijing city centre as every car was thoroughly searched. It was a 20-minute job for each vehicle.
...
This is the second layer of a security plan that already includes hundreds of checkpoints on every road leading into the capital from Hebei, the neighbouring province that hugs Beijing.
...
The third phase, which will be implemented soon, calls for security checkpoints on major downtown streets.

Beijing games use-by date nears
The Age (Australia), July 15
For aspiring foreign visitors, the national lock-down hits them as soon as they approach a Chinese embassy or consulate for a visa. Businessmen who travel here every month are suddenly barred. Some tourists who have bought Olympics tickets can't get in. Scores of four- and five-star hotels that were built to host hundreds of thousands of guests for China's coming-out party are less than half-full and look like staying that way.

Olympics Party Disrupts Life for Beijingers
Iter Press Service (IPS), July 14
There was a lot of talk about Olympics economy and how small private entrepreneurs like me would benefit from the arrival of foreign visitors but now we are told to close shop and stay home at least until the games are finished," laments Wang Xingfei whose garments shop was shut down because it was deemed ‘unbecoming’ and ‘insecure’.
...
From construction companies to cement producers and house decoration teams, the hosting of the Olympic games by the capital is exacting a heavy toll. To purify the air and clean up the environment the Beijing government has suspended hundreds of thousands of projects and told noisy and polluting industries to take a long break. Thousands of migrant workers have been sent home.
...
Even if we could get away with doing some small building jobs in the coming two months we couldn’t do it because no trucks with construction materials and cement will be allowed to enter the city," says Shao, a building contractor who wants only his family name used.

China Asks Japan for Information on Falun Gong Members Ahead of Olympics
istockAnalyst, July 17
Chinese public security authorities have asked Japan to provide information on Japan-based members of the Falun Gong, a spiritual group banned in China, ahead of the Beijing Olympics, sources close to Japan-China ties said Thursday.

The Japanese government has rejected the request, which included a list of the group's members, citing protection of information on individuals, according to the sources.

US lawmakers consider Olympic rights message to China
AFP, July 24
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US lawmakers Wednesday accused China of reneging on a commitment to improve human rights when it won the right to host the Olympics, saying it had instead intensified a crackdown on dissent.

"There were early indications that China was prepared to improve its behavior as the games approached," said Howard Berman, the Democratic head of the House of Representatives foreign affairs panel.
But "the hope was short-lived, as China failed to honor these commitments," he said, citing as examples Beijing's "failed" pledges to allow greater press freedoms and improve its general human rights situation.

China’s Guerrilla War for the Web
Far Eastern Economic Review, July 2008
They have been called the “Fifty Cent Party,” the “red vests” and the “red vanguard.” But China’s growing armies of Web commentators—instigated, trained and financed by party organizations—have just one mission: to safeguard the interests of the Communist Party by infiltrating and policing a rapidly growing Chinese Internet. They set out to neutralize undesirable public opinion by pushing pro-Party views through chat rooms and Web forums, reporting dangerous content to authorities.
...
By some estimates, these commentary teams now comprise as many as 280,000 members nationwide, and they show just how serious China’s leaders are about the political challenges posed by the Web.
…
China’s Culture Ministry now regularly holds training sessions for Web commentators, who are required to pass an exam before being issued with job certification.
…
“The goal of the government is to crank up the ‘noise’ and drown out progressive and diverse voices on China’s Internet,” says Isaac Mao, a Chinese Web entrepreneur and expert on social media. “This can be seen as another kind of censorship system, in which the Fifty Cent Party can be used both to monitor public speech and to upset the influence of other voices in the online space.”

Chinese Authorities Vow to Thwart Threats to Olympics
Washington Post, July 24
"[We must] resolutely prevent severe violence and terrorist incidents, resolutely prevent severe political incidents that could affect state security and social stability and resolutely prevent large-scale mass incidents to make sure the objective of a safe Olympic Games is reached."
Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu to the People's Armed Police troops and officers gathered on July 23 at the corps' Beijing headquarters.
…
Meng's exhortation to the lined-up People's Armed Police was seen as particularly important because these troops will be the main security forces on the ground during the Olympics, dealing with athletes, spectators, tourists and journalists as well as would-be protesters. His tone suggested that the troops, if they take their cue from him, are likely to approach their task on the streets of Beijing with an unbending attitude.
…
Tibetan independence sympathizers, human rights activists, practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual exercise movement and critics of China's Darfur policy have been singled out by Chinese security officials as the most likely foreigners to try to hold street demonstrations or unfurl banners in front of television cameras during the Games. In that light, visa applications have been screened with particular care, including bans on visits by foreigners who Chinese consular officials fear might try to harm China's image. Chinese authorities acknowledged Thursday they also have further tightened controls over business visas, declining to issue invitation documents until September.

Athletes under pressure to stage a protest on the podium
Vancouver Sun, July 24
The Chinese government has made it clear that security is paramount. There are 100,000 police and military officers in Beijing with missile launchers at the main Olympic venues.
On Wednesday, the government announced three protest "pens" will be set up. But only groups with permits will be allowed in and, since political protests are illegal, it's unlikely that Free Tibet rallies, Falun Gong demonstrations or protests against China's involvement in Darfur will be sanctioned.

Reflections on the Earthquake in China

2008-05-18T10:26:00.003+07:00

At a time of a natural disaster and the associated death and destruction, it is important to support relief efforts, as well as offer the best of moral support -- in this case, to the Chinese people.

We'd like to take a moment to offer our own condolences to the many that have died. At this time of tragedy, our hearts go out those Chinese that were affected, who died or who lost loved ones, friends, or their homes and livelihoods.

There is now an outpouring of stories from China, stories of people helping each other through the worst natural disaster of the last 30 years (as it is being billed), and also stories of corruption leading to sub-standard building construction, and corresponding outrage.

The Chinese regime seems to have allowed an unprecedented level of transparency in the media. I write 'seems' because in any communist regime, things are rarely what they seem. But let's say, for the purposes of this reflection, that we believe that.

While initially rejecting foreign aid for the crucial first three days post-disaster, the regime reversed its position and allowed foreign workers and capital in. Hu Jintao himself has come down from the halls of the communist elite to walk among the people, another move breaking with tradition. Inquiries have been promised into the shoddy construction that needlessly led to so many deaths.

Is it a sudden change of heart? In a sense, I think, that's exactly what it is. It would seem that top regime people have finally decided to start taking cues from the Western public relations experts and spin doctors that they have been paying such large salaries to employ.

If the China of today was the China of days long gone, the majority of the population would be seeing this disaster as a direct consequence of the actions of the people, or the actions of the government. But many of the Chinese people of today (but certainly not all), and indeed many of us in the West don't believe in such things.

For the Chinese regime, accountable for so much death and misery past and present, a disaster that renders them largely unaccountable by most Western standards is a dream come true. Virtually all indications to present suggest that the regime cares little about individual Chinese lives, but instead focuses on 'stability' (read: keeping power at all costs). With the first four months of the year dedicated to exposing the regime's instability and darker side, the CCP central committee and their charges are now working overtime to turn the disaster into a propaganda coup, especially internationally.

Let's not fall into that trap. Let's offer our unequivocal support to the Chinese people, but not to the regime that has abused them for so many years.

We appeal to all those who have taken the regime to task over its human rights abuses and crimes against humanity, or who have planned to: Do not let up because of this earthquake tragedy. Do not allow Beijing's apparently Western and compassionate response to disaster to make us believe that the litany of crimes and abuses they are currently responsible for are any less valid.

The current confirmed death toll due to the quake is said by Chinese state media to be around 30,000. It will always be unclear how many of those were caused obviously by regime corruption, i.e. cutting corners in building costs. We can be sure that there were many more who received cash in the pocket or felt obligated to turn a blind eye, than there are those who may be charged. The current ruling clique will certainly use the opportunity to pick some scapegoats and do a little internal cleansing.

Yet there are also numbers to be talked about that rarely get attention. The Chinese regime's sale of 40,000 organ transplants, harvested from innocents over the last five years, most likely from Falun Gong practitioners. At least 14 million dead to Mao's forced famine, ironically named the Great Leap Forward, 1958-60. Untold thousands dead during the CCP's 'liberation,' 'pacification,' and assimilation of Tibet. These deaths are obviously not accidents, but deliberate deaths perpetrated by the Chinese Regime. Let's not forget about these crimes, and continue to expose them in coming months in the runup to the Olympics, and onwards. And for those crimes that are still happening today, let's continue to work to stop them.

Note to China: Please Implode

2008-03-23T12:37:00.007+07:00

Jan's comment: I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of Morford or the San Francisco Chronicle, or agree with everything written here, but reading this article brought tears to my eyes. To those advocates of freedom and basic rights for every person, to those who can still get a visa into the Middle Kingdom, please seriously think about it: This unique opportunity to expose the regime presently running China to the world, at a time when all eyes are focused there, will not come again. But please, don't think too long -- get ready to act.

Note to China: Please Implode
Could the Olympics rain down shame on Chinese oppression and Tibet abuses? Let's hope

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Friday, March 21, 2008

I hope it all comes crashing down on their heads.

Is that wrong? Is it ill-minded and somehow unfair to wish that the Chinese government's notorious record of human rights abuses and absolutely horrid treatment of Tibet be exposed to the world — and the Chinese people themselves — to the point where it is shamed and humiliated and perhaps even forced by unprecedented international scrutiny to upheave its oppressive ways and improve conditions and even (heaven forfend) honor religious and political freedom within its borders? No, I do not think it is.

Let me admit outright: I am no expert on Chinese-Tibetan relations. I do not know the full histories, the deeper conflicts, the enormous prejudices, the religious oppression that goes back decades and generations.

But I do know something of Tibet, of the Dalai Lama, of his unadorned messages of peace and love. And I know something of Tibetan Buddhism, of China's abduction of the true Panchen Lama, of the brutal oppression and the massacres and the cultural genocide, the forced relocation of Han Chinese into Tibetan holy land, of the Tibetan's peaceful rallies and chanting and nonviolence, all contrasted with images of jackbooted Chinese riot police stomping on the heads of protesters marching in the street.

And I know whom I tend to believe when I read "unconfirmed" reports of soldiers firing on Tibetan protesters, of dead bodies in the streets of Lhasa, of tanks rolling through crowds and hundreds of students arrested, Tibetan monasteries being locked down and Tibet again under martial law, all media cut off, all access denied, as sour and rather vile hardline Communist leader Zhang Qingli steps up to a microphone and calls the Dalai Lama — perhaps the gentlest, kindest human soul on the face of the planet — a "wolf in monk's robes, a devil with a human face but the heart of a beast." Yes, I think I know where the truth lies.

It doesn't take much. Truly, you don't need to see many photos of, say, a black-clad Chinese riot cop raising a huge, four-foot stick over his head with both hands and running straight at a praying, barefoot, red-robed Tibetan monk — a monk who is facing the other way and who is merely walking humbly on a protest march — ready to whale that stick down on the monk's humble head, it does not take many photos like that to wish a deep and profound ill upon the government that promotes such aggression.

You don't even need to be reminded of Tiananmen Square, or of all the ongoing crackdowns on students and dissidents and journalists, the torture and torment of humble Falun Gong practitioners or even the harsh control of Chinese Christians to know that the few images and stories of brutality and oppression that do trickle out are just the tip of a very ugly, bloody iceberg.

So then, this is the profound wish, the hope for this upcoming Olympic Games, held in a country run by an oppressive dictatorship, a country brutally divided between new wealth and extreme poverty, eager to be taken seriously as a new global superpower and also a country never before so open to cameras and reporters from around the globe: May your human rights atrocities be exposed. May your violence against peace-loving Tibetans be shamed. May we honor and respect China's culture and history even as your government's nauseating attacks on peace and intellectual freedom are revealed like the appalling cancer they so very much are.

Is that fair to hope? Sure as hell seems like it.

But here's the catch: It ain't gonna come from the United States. Hell, NBC's Olympic coverage is traditionally so slick and safe and cheesy and jingoistic it borders on nauseating, not to mention how NBC is wholly owned by General Electric and all coverage will be sponsored by companies like Coca-Cola and McDonald's and Johnson & Johnson, companies that largely adore China's cheap labor and most of whom would happily turn a blind eye to a pile of dead Tibetans if it meant a foothold in the exploding Chinese economy.

Put another way: The odds of Bob Costas cutting away from hyping our cute perky Coke-drinking gymnastics team to show a shocking image of a dead monk lying in the street of Lhasa? About one in a billion.

What's more, America's not exactly a saint when it comes to human rights ourselves. Our own president endorses torture. We still have the death penalty. We have had atrocious foreign prisons and sinister Homeland Security and illegal wiretapping and the Patriot Act and a vice president who would gladly shoot a war protester in the face just to buy a gallon of milk.

And it's also worth mentioning that China (along with Japan) owns a simply staggering portion of America's reeling debt, Chinese banks having basically floated the United States over $1 trillion to keep President Bush's nightmare economy afloat. Oh yes, Dubya will be there at the games, cheering and waving a little flag and holding hands with Premier Wen Jiabao and mispronouncing everyone's name. Wonder twin powers, activate!

But the "good" news is, China's leaders already seem to be getting a bit desperate, having been caught off guard by the widespread uprisings and protests happening now across the world. The premier has already accused the Dalai Lama of trying to sour the Olympics by inciting violence, which is a bit like Dick Cheney accusing a butterfly of murder.

But these comments also reveal a curious and telling thing about China's leaders, normally so controlled, so removed from the intense gaze of international media: They don't realize how utterly absurd and offensive they sound to the world audience. Nor do they seem to know the true power of the Internet, of the vagaries of global coverage, of what Olympic-sized media attention could reveal in the coming months. They never had to care. Until now.

Indeed, it will likely very much be up to the foreign press and foreign leaders, or perhaps even the athletes and visiting celebrities themselves, to speak out, to crack the armor further, really get the media's attention. Already some foreign leaders are considering a "mini boycott" of the opening ceremonies, which would be a huge insult to China. It's a start.

Could it all unravel for China's dictatorship? Maybe. The vast majority of Olympics coverage will be hugely positive, upbeat, every outlet in a swoon for the "New China," all glittery and whimsical and shiny and culturally rich, as this extraordinary new superpower puts on its best, most modern face for the world.

But somehow, among all the thousands of reporters and news agencies and bloggers covering the games, a handful might have the nerve to sneak outside the carefully guarded press boxes and Olympic stadiums and find a way to report on the real atrocities, the real abuses, and beam them to the astonished world like never before. Can we hope for that? Let the games begin.

Mark Morford's Notes & Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday on SFGate and in the Datebook section of the San Francisco Chronicle.

If there was still any doubt: The Chinese communist spin on the Dalai Lama

2008-03-20T14:15:00.012+07:00

You've probably all read that the Chinese Communist Party is blaming the Dalai Lama as the "mastermind" behind violent protests in Tibet, which of course is absurd. We know the Dalai Lama as the poster child of the Nobel Peace Prize, but inside China this is the type of propaganda they've been hearing for years.

Now, for anyone who might still have harboured doubts about the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party and how it distorts reality, there can be no doubt. The Party boss in Tibet Zhang Qingli has laid it bare in his own words, in an editorial in the Tibet Daily, a typical CCP mouthpiece.

Zhang Qingli: The Dalai Lama is "a wolf wrapped in monk's robes, a devil with a human face and a beast's heart."

Zhang Qingli: "We are now engaged in a fierce blood-and-fire battle with the Dalai clique, a life-and-death battle between us and the enemy."

Zhang Qingli (Another translation): "We are in the midst of a fierce struggle involving blood and fire, a life-and-death struggle with the Dalai clique."

Note the violence implicit to these words. This is definitely not the Olympic spirit.

Polish Parliament to Examine Poland's Participation at Beijing Olympics

2008-03-19T12:27:00.008+07:00

New Epoch Times article by yours truly.

WARSAW—Many methods can be used to voice a country's displeasure towards an Olympic host, especially if that host is a grievous human rights violator. A total boycott is not the only way, said Polish parliamentarian Karol Karski at a press conference on March 17. The Polish government, he argued, could choose not to go to Beijing 2008, while still allowing athletes to attend.

Zbigniew Romaszewski, Assistant Speaker of the Polish Senate and perennial Human Rights activist, with his wife Zofia, also a famed Polish Solidarity activist, at a rally supporting Tibet in front of the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw on March 16, 2008 (Jan Jekielek/The Epoch Times)

Karski has mobilized the opposition Law & Justice party's parliamentary association to call for a joint sitting of the Foreign Affairs and Sports & Physical Culture committees of the Sejm (the Polish parliament) to examine this very question. The verbose title of the proposed hearing makes it plain: A discussion of the situation surrounding the organizing the of 2008 Olympics in the People's Republic of China (PRC), a nation which violates human rights and the principles contained in the Olympic Charter.

The initiative would make Poland's Sejm the first parliament in the world to make an official, public assessment of its country's role at the Beijing Games. A date for the hearing is expected to be set in the next couple of days, officials say.

According to Karski, the participation of Polish government functionaries such as Ministers at the Olympics would construe "a kind of support for the PRC government's activities" such as the ongoing violence perpetrated by the Chinese military on the people of Tibet.

Concurrently, a group of Polish parliamentarians that were in the political opposition to Poland's communist leaders in the 1980's have launched an appeal to the PRC.

"With respect to the Beijing Olympics, we declare that the PRC is a dictatorship, in which human rights are violated, in particular citizens' rights, religious rights as well as the rights of ethnic minorities, violations as in the case of present-day Tibet," highlighted the appeal, led by Assistant Speaker of the Sejm Stefan Niesiołowski.

The appellants, who include perennial Solidarity activists such as parliamentarian Andrzej Czuma, hope to mobilize people from all walks of life including Olympic athletes to "undertake all sorts of actions to aid in the release all political prisoners in the PRC, as well as [in developing] respect for human and citizens' rights in that country." They stop short of calling for an all-out boycott of the Games.

The Polish Parliamentary Group on the Question of Tibet took a stronger stance. In a letter addressed to the PRC ambassador in Poland Chin Sun Rongmin, the Group states "it is not yet too late to consider an international boycott of the Beijing Olympics," considering the current "wave of repression" in Tibet.

Calling Beijing to account for its human rights violations is not a new thing in the Sejm. Five months earlier at a parliamentary conference on human rights in China vis-à-vis the Beijing Olympics , a number of speakers and organizations spoke out. The Polish Transplant Sports Association (PTSA), the World Solidarity coalition, and The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR), one of the event co-organizers, all took strong positions against the holding of the 2008 Games in Beijing.

How to Shame an Olympic Host

Last Month, Holland's Christian Union Party, part of the government coalition, called for a boycott of the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games, citing Beijing's gross human rights violations as the cause.

The poster of the World Solidarity coalition of NGOs and individuals calling for a boycott of the Beijing Games, at a protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw on March 16, 2008. World Solidarity was formed at Asian Human Rights Week in Warsaw in November 2006 when it made an appeal to the Polish Olympic Committee about the Beijing Games. (Jan Jekielek/The Epoch Times)

There have been boycotts or nations barred from participating in the Games for human rights violations consistently since 1956 including four years of boycotts and the barring of South Africa from 1964 until 1992 due to the racist policy of apartheid.

The most famous and widespread boycott was in 1980 when Moscow hosted the games after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The U.S. implemented a full boycott, urging the world to do the same, to which there were a variety of responses.

Between 45 and 50 countries joined the boycott including many influential ones such as Canada and Japan. Some governments, such as Great Britain and Australia, officially supported the boycott but gave athletes the choice to go or not – many of whom stayed home. Other countries chose milder yet still symbolic methods, such as the Olympic ceremonies boycott suggested for the 2008 Games. Several nations competed under the Olympic flag rather than their own, as a means of voicing their disapproval.

Of the countries that chose a total boycott in 1980 for political reasons, one nation stands out: The People's Republic of China itself.

International Political Review publishes 'Bloody Harvest'

2008-03-01T15:21:00.006+07:00

News Flash: David Kilgour's and David Matas revised report into allegations of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China, Bloody Harvest, has been published in full (minus appendix) in the International Political Review (Międzynarodowy Przegląd Polityczny), an influential Polish non-partisan quarterly published by the Sobieski Institute, a centre-right public policy think tank.

The cover of the February issue of the International Political Review

This periodical is widely read by intellectuals in Poland, especially people is some way connected to foreign affairs issues. On the cover: Falun Gong: The black market for organs in China. The publication of the report again in this journal is of particular significance, we think. To establish why Falun Gong practitioners are targeted in particular for this horrendous practice, it also contains expert testimony on the nature of the practice itself, which can help more Poles see past the CCP propaganda machine's persistent efforts to vilify the group. It will also help policymakers think more seriously about Poland's participation in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Monks in Orange...a long awaited update

2008-03-01T14:08:00.006+07:00

What seemed to be just weeks turned out to be three months... glancing at the blog, I can see that the last posting was at last November, almost exactly 90 days ago. It seems that the ease of facebook has taken both Cindy's and my focus in that direction -- but we are painfully aware that not all of you have a facebook account! So are some photos (fairly) recently taken in Laos -- from the morning procession of monks in the World Heritage town of Luang Prabang -- which can aslo be seen in 3D images. Wonderful stuff!

Small handfuls of rice are given to each monk by each merit-seeker

Novice monks have their right arm left open, while first-years have it covered

Some confusion as Thai merit-seekers follow their tradition in offering a variety of food
-- instead of the usual handful of rice

It's mostly the older generations that still offer food for merit.
Luang Prabang is changing very, very quickly!

Later in the day, a young monk visiting the Luang Prabang waterfall

And to finish up, a photo of C&J on New Year's 2008, sent by a friend

We hope you all have an excellent year!

FOX anti-Polish slur... and how it relates to hate propaganda

2007-11-29T03:34:00.000+07:00

Originally posted 7:13am Tuesday, Nov 27, on Facebook

FOX recently aired an episode of the comedy Back to You ("Something's Up There") which outraged Poles worldwide, and for good reason. One character jokingly tells another one, a Pole, "it’s in your Polish blood, like kielbasa and collaborating with the Nazis," which is followed by canned laughter.

Fox initially defended the line, saying that it was uttered by a character that is known to be ignorant. Eventually, under pressure from viewers and the Polish government, they issued a full apology.

Back to You Opening Titles
To most Poles, it is obvious that not only didn't Poles collaborate with the Nazis, but that Poland was the only occupied country never to collaborate (see the the history lesson below this entry, taken from Lucia Sliwa's Open Mike blog).

As Helena Ziolkowska writes, there 'were no Polish SS Divisions, no Polish “Quisling”' (referring to Vidkun Quisling, who ruled Norway until he was tried and executed for treason after the war).

There were Blue Police (Polish police legislated by the Nazis into serving them) and 'Szmalcowniks' (a colloquial term for blackmailers of Jews and of those that hid them)... but the Polish resistance had many double agents working in the former, and made a habit of executing the latter. A case in point is the fact that it was only in Poland that the 'crime' of aiding Jews was punishable by death. Under such circumstances, a person choosing themselves and their family over others (which tragically did indeed happen) can be considered self-serving, but clearly not collaboration.

The most obvious collaborators were the Tripartite Pact countries, of course, and the accusation might be leveled at many of the Allied powers such as France or the US, but Poland? Hardly.

Unfortunately, this lesson is not as well known around the world. As a large portion of the holocaust occurred in Poland, never mind that it was orchestrated by the Nazis, some survivors and their kin have (somewhat understandably) some negative associations with Poles and Poland in general. This spills out into popular culture, and is what makes the ignorant character's comment so insidious. For better or worse, for many people, popular television shows play a considerable role in their education.

For the last several years I've been studying how hate propaganda is manufactured and used to mobilize a group of people against another--in this case, the first group is the Chinese population (and later the global population) at large, and the second is Falun Gong practitioners worldwide. Apart from hundreds of thousands openly hostile news articles (347 articles in the People's Daily in the first month of persecution in 1999, for example), slurs were placed strategically in entertainment and other television programs—implying that everyone in the audience should get the reference.

For example, in conversation, a character might mention, 'why don't you just burn yourself alive, just like those Falun Gong practitioners?' The statement refers to a key piece of anti-Falun Gong propaganda manufactured by the Chinese regime.

It's implied in this statement, as in the one in Back to You, that people should know the details of the issue in question. In the Chinese example, the statement is outrageous because matter-of-factly portrays practitioners as dangerously suicidal. In the FOX example, the statement similarly matter-of-factly paints Poles as Nazi collaborators. Perhaps either could be forgiven if it were in the collective social consciousness that these statements are bizarrely inaccurate. Unfortunately, that is not the case today—though with education, the situation is getting better on both counts, I believe.

We know that there were a few Poles that were Nazi collaborators, and it is certainly possible, though undocumented, that someone identifying as a Falun Gong practitioner committed suicide (despite the teachings arguing vehemently against that). But these would both be fringe, unusual situations. When hate propaganda is manufactured, such anecdotes are commonly used to demonize an entire group.

By allowing such a statement to be broadcast (in prime time to boot), FOX and its writers have unwittingly (surely it cannot be worse?) allowed themselves to become tools of anti-polonists, by spreading the equivalent of hate propaganda. I'm very pleased to hear that FOX has now vowed to never air the clip again. I wish the same for CCTV's self-immolation videos. The debate about whether this is censorship, and of how hate propaganda relates to freedom of speech, we can take up another time—I invite the discussion!

Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the realities of Polish involvement in World War II and the holocaust, if you are not already in the know. The following letter provides a good launchpad. You can follow the progress of the campaign to get FOX to apologise here.

Comments are most welcome!

--
November 20, 2007

Mr. Joseph Earley
Executive Vice President
Fox Broadcasting Company
10201 West Pico Blvd.,
Los Angeles, Ca 90035

Dear Mr. Earley:

On Wednesday, November 14, 2007 FOX TV broadcast an unprecedented, incredibly offensive and outrageous lie about Americans of Polish descend and the Polish Nation as a whole (“ it’s in your Polish blood, like kielbasa and collaborating with the Nazis”). That statement is deeply insulting, demeaning and an inaccurate portrayal of history.

It is outrageous that this remark was allowed to appear on a national show.

On September 1, 1939 Poland was brutally invaded by the Third Reich, and later on September 17, 1939 by the Soviets as whole world looked on, leaving Poland to defend for itself. Neither France nor Great Britain stepped in to help like had been promised. Although, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany, no direct military action was rendered. During World War II three million Poles and three million Polish Jews perished as a result of German occupation. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where giving any kind of help to the Jews resulted in execution of the helper and his or her family. Despite such circumstances, thousands of Poles hide the Jews in their homes or helped to find another shelter and provided food for them. More Poles than people of any other nation came to the aid of Jews seeking safe place. The number of “Polish” trees in the Righteous Among Nations Garden in the Yad Vashem speaks for itself. Among 15 thousand trees from 34 nations, 5 thousand are Polish. The collaboration with the Nazis popular in different countries of Europe was unknown in Poland where there was no Polish Militias, no Polish SS Division and no Polish “Quisling”.

As the President of Polish Teachers Association in America, the organization that for 55 years has made a valuable impact on development of future generation of Polish Americans, I strongly protest against such untruthful statement and request full apology from the President of the Fox Network, its management and writers.

Sincerely,

Helena Ziolkowska
President of Polish Teachers Association in America

Covering up slaughter, with a little help from the CBC

2007-11-24T07:29:00.000+07:00

This response to CBC's gutting of Beyond the Red Wall appeared in Canada's National Post newspaper on Friday, Nov. 23. We really couldn't have said it better ourselves; David Matas' shoot-from-the-hip approach is always refreshing and nakedly honest to boot.

Covering up slaughter, with a little help from the CBC

David Matas
National Post

Friday, November 23, 2007

Turkey denies the Armenian genocide. Sudan pretends the ongoing genocide in Darfur is not happening. The Soviet Union maintained that there was no forced famine in Ukraine. Neo-Nazis claim the Holocaust never happened. The pattern is predictable. Genocide Watch has identified eight stages of genocide. The last is denial.

The massive crimes that China has inflicted on the Falun Gong spiritual group follow this pattern. David Kilgour and I have written a report titled Bloody Harvest in which we showed that China has been killing the Falun Gong by the tens of thousands since 2000 for their organs. The organs are sold for huge sums, mostly to foreign tourists, for transplants. Beijing denies it all.

Bloody Harvest has been supported by two independent researchers -- Kirk Allison at the University of Minnesota and U.K. transplant surgeon Tom Treasure. All the evidence on which we relied is independently verifiable and available on our Web site, organharvestinvestigation.net.

Since the first version of our report came out in July, 2006, David Kilgour and I have been to over 40 countries publicizing its results. No one anywhere has refuted our report.

The Chinese government and its fellow travellers have responded with disinformation, denials and clumsy attempts at censorship. Beijing systematically tries to get our events cancelled. If that fails, it seeks to introduce its own propaganda into every forum to which we are invited.

When the CBC announced that it was broadcasting a TV documentary about China's persecution of the Falun Gong that featured our report, it was predictable that the Chinese censorship machine would get into gear. What was not predictable was that the CBC would pay attention to it.

Beijing leaned on the CBC and the network pulled the originally scheduled Nov. 6 broadcast. It was replaced with an old documentary on Pakistan because, so the CBC spokesman said, recent turmoil in Pakistan made the rebroadcast timely.

But timeliness was not the concern. The CBC went back to the documentary's producer, Peter Rowe, and asked for changes. The changes he made weren't enough. So the CBC made more changes on its own.

The CBC version of the documentary was broadcast on Nov. 20. Since the original version is now available on YouTube, it is possible to compare the two.

The CBC's deletions were telling. One expunged segment was the playing of tapes of telephone admissions from hospitals in China acknowledging that they were selling Falun Gong organs. (Chinese government denials remained in the CBC version.)

The additions were typical Chinese propaganda. The CBC on its own, for instance, added this screen to the documentary: "Amnesty International does not have conclusive evidence to back up the allegation the Falun Gong are killed for their organs." (It should be obvious that Amnesty's silence is not evidence of anything. The organization does not claim to be an encyclopedia of all human rights violations.)

The CBC claimed that the changes it made strengthened the documentary. But that is not what happened. Instead, the CBC has weakened itself.

-David Matas is a Winnipeg lawyer.

© National Post 2007

Beyond the Red Wall Saga

2007-11-10T18:07:00.000+07:00

Just minutes before Peter Rowe's Beyond the Red Wall was going to air last Tuesday, following some phone calls from the Chinese Embassy in Canada, CBC pulled the plug. Rowe, and many others who believe in Canada's national broadcasting company, were shocked and dismayed. It appeared to be a textbook case of bowing the ever-present Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pressure tactics, but many never expected it from this network. Some, like conservative commentator Peter Worthington, were not surprised. The Canadian Association of Journalists was "disappointed" at CBC's apparent act of self-censorship. Thousands made calls, and wrote letters and faxes to CBC.

And in the end, democracy has apparently prevailed. CBC covered itself, saying it simply wanted to review the material (despite it having already been aired more than once, in low-viewership timeslots), and Rowe agreed to minor changes that he says will not hurt the documentary at all; his statement makes it clear that he has agreed to CBC's party line on the issue.

So, it looks like the slightly-modified documentary will now tentatively air on November 20 (According to Associated Press via International Herald Tribune) or November 22, according to The Toronto Star, and it has also received a nice amount of publicity ahead of time -- courtesy, ironically, of the CCP -- but more importantly, of course, of the thousands of concerned Canadian citizens that lent their voices to the cause.

As of the morning of November 10, Google News clocked 102 articles about the this Beyond the Red Wall saga. Even the CBC had its own, decently-done article. Well done team! However, we're still waiting for CBC to return the documentary's website to its proper form.

Let's see what happens. Please tune in on November 20, or 22. We'll keep you updated. Let's hope for no false starts this time.

BEYOND THE RED WALL:THE PERSECUTION OF FALUN GONGCBC Documentary

2007-11-03T13:19:00.000+07:00

We have to admit that we are unabashedly thrilled to find out that Peter Rowe's movie, several years in the making, is finally coming out. And, it's airing soon, for Canadians: Tuesday November 6 at 10pm ET/PT and Saturday November 10 at 11pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld.

"This discrimination against and attempted elimination of a peaceful worldwide group, whose motto is 'Truthfulness, Benevolence and Forbearance,' is Chinese governmental policy," said multi-award-winning filmmaker Peter Rowe. "I needed to investigate that and bring it more into the public eye as the most monumental, non-wartime human rights abuse of our time." - from the News Release below.

FOCUSED: Peter Rowe filming at World Falun Dafa Day on site
in Toronto, in May 2005. (Jan Jekielek/The Epoch Times)

NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New film from Peter Rowe, BEYOND THE RED WALL: The Persecution of Falun Gong, looks into the torture and killing of thousands

China's attempts to eliminate the peaceful practice of Falun Gong illuminated on CBC Newsworld's The Lens, Tuesday, November 6, 2007
October 2, 2007 (Toronto): Chinese officials deny capturing, interrogating, beating, imprisoning, killing and selling the organs of thousands of practitioners of Falun Gong, an ancient method of exercise and meditation for health and well-being. The evidence, however, in Peter Rowe's new film, BEYOND THE RED WALL: The Persecution of Falun Gong, shows the opposite. The one-hour documentary, airing on CBC Newsworld's The Lens on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 10:00pm , exposes the ongoing governmental persecution of thousands, including a Canadian citizen, who have suffered in China's attempt to eliminate the peaceful practise of Falun Gong.

"This discrimination against and attempted elimination of a peaceful worldwide group, whose motto is 'Truthfulness, Benevolence and Forbearance,' is Chinese governmental policy," said multi-award-winning filmmaker Peter Rowe. "I needed to investigate that and bring it more into the public eye as the most monumental, non-wartime human rights abuse of our time."

Persecution of Falun Gong in Tienanmen Square (Clearwisdom.net)

British Columbia human rights lawyer Clive Ansley believes the world should not be sending athletes to the Beijing Olympics in the fact of such extreme violations of human rights. BEYOND THE RED WALL follows up on the shocking allegations, supported by a report co-authored by lawyer David Matas and David Kilgour, former Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, that Chinese authorities have removed the corneas, kidneys and other body parts from living prisoners for sale to Chinese and foreign buyers.

Falun Gong, which is apolitical, informal, free of charge, run by volunteers, and practised by millions in some 60 countries, was outlawed in China in 1999. In 2000, Canadian artist Kunlun Zhang, a visiting McGill University professor and Falun Gong practitioner, was arrested on a visit to China. Irwin Cotler, Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada from 1997 to 2004, was instrumental in spearheading the movement that freed Professor Kunlun from a Chinese labour camp in 2001.

What 7 hours of electric baton torture to the face will do to you
Gao Rongrong was killed for having these photos and testimony published

Other political figures who speak out in BEYOND THE RED WALL include U.S. Congress members Chris Smith and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; Zhang Weidong, Minister Counsellor of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Canada; and Canadian reporter Ian Johnson, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Falun Gong in the Wall Street Journal.

Despite protests by such groups as Amnesty International and individual activists such as Richard Gere, the horrors continue. Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners remain imprisoned in China.

BEYOND THE RED WALL: The Persecution of Falun Gong is written, produced and directed by Peter Rowe in association with CBC Television, Telefilm Canada, Canadian Television Film, and Canada and Ontario Tax Credits. Rowe previously produced "Popcorn with Maple Syrup" for CBC and is currently the producer of "Angry Planet," now in its second season on OLN. The Lens, CBC Newsworld's documentary showcase, airs Tuesdays at 10:00pm ET/PT (repeated Saturdays at 4:00am & 9:00am ET & Sundays at 4:00am ET).

For further information, downloadable or CD photos and DVD screeners, please contact:

Janice Kaye, creativecommunications@rogers.com, 416.697.6098

On the CBC website: http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/program_061107.html
About Peter Rowe: http://www.northernstars.ca/directorsmz/rowe_peter.html

Ah - Japan again!

2007-10-18T12:54:00.000+07:00

Cindy being dressed in a creation of famous Kimono designer Ueshima

(man on left). Trained in Kyoto, the master designer moved to Noto Hanto
after falling in love with its stunning sunsets over the west coastof Japan.
We cycle through this region on B&R trips and always stop by to visit the
82-year old artist and to see how his paintings become brilliant kimonos.

Our graceful tea ceremony hostess at Gyokusen-en
- an intimate Edo period private garden in Kanazawa

This 8-km stretch at Chirihama in Ishikawa gives new meaning
to the term "beach highway" - strange but true.

Canopy-level bridge to the Miho Museum outside of Kyoto. The Museum
houses an impressive private collection from all over the world, but the
real attraction is the architecture by I. M. Pei

Another amazing bridge on our bike ride almost at the Miho Museum.

August Photos

2007-08-28T20:43:00.000+07:00

Time has flown by faster than expected, and it's already August 28! Hard to believe, in fact, and it seems we'll have to try and catch your interest again. Ok, Pinkazaam!

No, Jan didn't go to Africa, but had a few hours to wait
for a train near the Berlin 'zoo' station -- and this came of it

Jan assembled a few of the most recent photos that he's taken as a quick post to prove that this blog is indeed alive and kicking. Admittedly, Facebook [Jan's profile / Cindy's profile] has seen a lot more updates in the last couple of months.

Our friend Alla from Russia, making magic
[guest photographer]

We recommend trying facebook out -- the key thing about it is efficiency. You can add links, photos, etc. much quicker than with the blog, and it has a lot of other functionality as well.

Marysia Senior and Adam visiting in Warsaw -- with Grandma

Earlier this month Jan took a trip to Athens to cover the inauguration of the Global Human Rights Torch Relay -- a parallel torch to the regular Olympic one.

One of the Greek goddesses lighting the Human Rights torch
This one was on the front of The Epoch Times two weeks ago.

Many people agree that the Beijing 2008 Olympics are a unique opportunity to apply pressure to correct the terrible human rights situation there - still one of the worst in the world. Others think that under the current circumstances, they should not happen at all.

Getting the glare out of the eyes at the Parthenon

The Acropolis can be a busy place...

Jan recently did some photography for a book cover, for a book about the chapel of St. Rosalia in Miejsce Piastowe, Poland. There is a well at its base, and the water is said to have curative effects for people with eye diseases.

St. Rosalia book cover photo

We hope you enjoyed these few images. Comments are welcome and encouraged!

Movement to boycott Beijing 2008

2007-07-07T15:08:00.000+07:00

The Olympic Charter states in part that:

“The goal of the Olympics is to place sports everywhere at the service of a harmonious development of man, with a view to encouraging the establishment of a peaceful society concerned with preservation of human dignity.” (Olympic Charter, article 30).

It's no surprise then that there is a growing movement to boycott the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Issues of concern are extreme human rights violations (which some call genocidal, and we agree, including attempts eradicate Falun Gong, assimilation/murder of local peoples in Tibet and East Turkistan) by the state in China, Beijing's complicity in the genocide in Darfur, abysmal press freedom, forced abortion, as well as child and slave labour and housing rights.

Some groups have already announced a boycott, while others are encouraging the Chinese regime to change its policies in order to avoid one.

The Human Rights Torch Relay is a petition to "urge the Chinese regime to respect human rights in the true olympic spirit."
See: www.boycottccpolympic.org. This petition focuses on both the organ harvesting and Darfur issues.

Thegenocideolympics.com has a good outline of the case for Beijing's complicity in Darfur, and also has a petition. You might recall Mia Farrow's call to action last March, telling Stephen Spielberg that he could "go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games" if he didn't use his influence as Director of the Games' opening and closing ceremonies to push Beijing to act on the Sudan issue. Spielberg wrote to Hu Jintao, and Bejing responded by sending an emissary to Khartoum. Despite this being lauded as a success by the activist community, Beijing continued to sign a new, massive Sudan oil deal, giving no indication of intent to limit its arms sales or to exert overt pressure the stop the genocide.

Incidentally, it is a terrible irony, and an inglorious testament to the CCP's well-oiled propaganda machine that Stephen Spielberg, of all people, the maker of Schindler's List, would have stepped up to produce the opening of the games. He really should know a lot better, and his involvement may encourage some to believe the "best human rights situation in its history" myth that the CCP has been working hard to manufacture.

If you have any doubts about Spielberg's involvement in Beijing 2008 being hightly questionable, please read this excellent article by Jonathan Zimmerman, posted at blackathlete.net. It's not about Spielberg, but about the propaganda value of the games for the CCP.

Reporters Without Borders has launched its own push to boycott Beijing 2008, as the organisation considers the PRC to be one of 18 journalistic "black holes" around the world, and "the world's biggest prison for journalists and cyber-dissidents."

From the site: "When the International Olympic Committee assigned the 2008 summer Olympic Games to Beijing on 13 July 2001, the Chinese police were intensifying a crackdown on subversive elements, including Internet users and journalists. Six years later, nothing has changed."

Some other links of note:

Amnesty International found that "the Olympics is apparently acting as a catalyst to extend the use of detention without trial, at least in Beijing."

Olympic Watch is another organisation examining China's human rights situation visa vi the Olympics.

Famed Japanese author and media critic Motohiko Izawa urges the Japanese government to boycott Beijing 2008.

Boycott 2008 Communist Olympics blog: The best collection of articles on the topic we have seen.

J&C

A family wedding

2007-07-01T18:08:00.000+07:00

Jan's younger cousin, Michael, was married to his loving fiancee Vanessa last June 23. J&C were proud to be there, and Jan managed to snap a few good photos...

Radiant bride

Walking down the center isle

Hand-in-hand

Warm moment

J&C caught unawares

All the best in the coming years, Vanessa and Michael!!!

J&C

18 hrs in Vienna

2007-06-21T15:02:00.000+07:00

VIENNA - AUSTRIAN AIRLINE LOUNGE (free wireless!)

We're currently en route to Toronto for the wedding of Jan's one and only first cousin, Michael, to the lovely Vanessa. We decided to take advantage of the Vienna layover and absorb some medieval ambiance for 18 hours.

Us in front of St. Stephen's Cathedral, in Vienna city centre

Crystal Melodies in front of the Plague Monument on Graben
erected in 1679 to thank God for ending the scourge
Florian, our gracious host and the "most cultivated tour guide"
in Vienna - at Hero's Square

Poland with Friends

2007-06-05T16:03:00.000+07:00

A couple of weeks ago friends Chris and Patty flew into Warsaw to screen their award winning movie ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story at the Planete Doc film festival. It was quite kind of them to bring their film to Poland since we'd missed seeing it in most other major cities around the world. If you haven't heard of the movie yet definitely check out the link.

While I was diligently studying away at my intensive Polish class - Oczywiscie! - Jan took the duo down to Krakow to show them the most important sites: Auschwitz, Wawel Castle and Aunt Anna. There's a even an online photo gallery if you want to take a peep. Here's one shot with the famous aunt.

Back in Warsaw, I spent the afternoon on an epic walk with dear Klara, my former co-worker from Canada World Youth days. Our expedition ended us up in Praga, on the "right" side of the Vistula River that divides Warsaw. Of course ask anyone in Warsaw and they'll tell you that Praga is on the "wrong" side of the river, but never mind, best not to aggravate intra-city rivalries.

One amazing thing that Praga can boast is an actual beach! Not what I expected to find in Warsaw. Sadly the river is far too polluted these days to venture a dip, but apparently there was a thriving beach scene in pre-war and shortly post-war Warsaw. Klara described seeing pictures of bathers in striped suits and ice cream kiosks lining the sandy banks of the river. These days the Warsaw side is buttressed with concrete steps but the Praga side is still wild and natural.

Klara on the beach in Praga with Warsaw's Old Town (right of her head)
and the Palace of Culture (left of her head) in the background.

The beach in Praga goes right up to the river's edge in some spots.
Here's Warsaw at dusk from the "right" side of the river.

A Meeting With History

2007-06-02T12:14:00.000+07:00

Yesterday I had a chance to meet and interview an absolutely incredible woman: Anna Walentynowicz. She is a small woman, perhaps Cindy's height, but with giant hands and feet -- no surprise, as she was for many years a welder and a crane operator at Gdansk's state shipyard, regularly pushing herself to the limit to get the job done. She has the self-confidence of a general facing assured victory.

Anna today, at her home in Gdansk

Anna was highly decorated as a model worker in the 70's, but soon began to realize that all was not well with her employers. The typically communist corruption was rampant, and workers' conditions periodically worsened. She decided to champion the cause of the workers, editing a newsletter that advocated for free trade unions (completely illegal under the Polish communist regime), which she openly distributed at the shipyards.

In 1980, she was fired for her activism, five months before her retirement came through. Rallying around her, 16,000 workers at the Gdansk shipyard went on strike, soon rallying the shipyards in adjacent Gdynia and Sopot. The strike directly resulted in the formation of the first independent trade union in all of communist Europe, Solidarity.

Now, those of you who see Lech Walensa and the Solidarity movement as the crowning glory of Poland's contribution to the fall of communist, brace yourselves, for this may be a shock. Following 1980, Anna describes a very different version of events than are commonly accepted. She contents, for example, that Lech Walesa was actually an agent of the SB, the Polish equivalent of the KGB. She also highlights that the Solidarity party that won elections in 1989 was in composition and ideologically absolutely not the same trade union that came into existence in 1980. She believes that the original Solidarity's identity was taken to rally popular opinion, so that the round-table "deal with the devil" could be made and portrayed as a victory. With the opening of the SB files in past years, there appears to be more evidence to corroborate her claims. I'll be publishing the interview with her in the coming week, likely. -- Jan in Warsaw

Une Très Bonne Semain

2007-05-06T15:16:00.000+07:00

Bonjour à tous!

Alors, seems we're still in the French spirit after spending last week in Burgundy, France. We were "forced" to go there by B&R for the annual Guide Gathering, kickoff start to the 2007 European travel season. It was a great combo of practical training, fabulous bike rides, connecting names with faces and of course, mounds of French fare.

Practicing changing a seat and post - actually
harder than you'd think but now Cindy's a pro!

The famous vineyards of Beaune behind us. This was during a great
bike ride between Beaune, where B&R has an office, and Arnay le Duc.

We also took advantage of the trip to have ourselves a little 3rd Anniversary holiday - one night each in Lyon and Bellegarde. Lyon of course is your typical lovely European city with a fabulous old quarter and not one but two rivers; Bellegarde is a small, picturesque mountain town a weways from Geneva.

Café and crèpe in Lyon's old quarter

Le même café (ou bien, le même restaurant - we each had our own coffee)

A different point of view

In Warsaw After a Busy Month

2007-04-21T16:19:00.000+07:00

It's been a busy month! We took some time to close up shop in Bangkok, spent a week visiting family in Toronto, another week working and conferencing in New York, and finally landed in Warsaw. Here are a few images, starting with the most recent, to give you a sense of where we are -- and where we've been:

The Communist icon, the Palace of Culture as seen from "Centrum" in downtown Warsaw

The "palace" was built in Warsaw under communist occupation, by Stalin as a way of reminding everyone who was really in charge. There was a lot of talk of demolishing it, but pragmatists argued convincingly that it was just too useful of a building to destroy and replace. The joke goes: Where can you get the best view in Warsaw? From the Palace of Culture. Why? Because you don't have to look at it.

In a typical airline lounge...the benefits of airmiles

Some not-so-light luggage to lug around...

3000-strong Falun Gong parade in New York City

Cindy and our sister Marysia pose for a shot (in Toronto)

Our nephew Brett and his dad Randy make some do spelling with pretzel sticks, as more sisters look on from behind

Oskar, our nephew by Polish standards, makes some moves
on the road to full bipedal mobility :)

To those who have been dedicated to The Long Trek Home and have been disappointed by our rather limited posting recently -- we're back! We look forward to keeping you on top of our activities very regularly.

Life out of the City

2007-03-26T13:52:00.000+07:00

Last week we left the increasingly steamy capital city (it's now consistently in the mid to high 30's with the humidex making it feel over 50 degrees Celsius / 125 Fahrenheit -- now that's hot!) for a little sojourn up north, in Chiang Rai province.

We went to visit, Nu, one of Jan's participants from his Canada World Youth days. Nu hails from a "smart" village about 15 km south of Chiang Rai city. The village is "smart" because everything is organised based on the principles of sustainability and cooperation - there are groups and co-ops for just about everything imaginable (you should have seen the house wives cabaret!). And honestly, the place does feel healthy and thriving.

A very "smart" village!

A very funny cow variety in the "smart" village (Nu's uncle raises these odd gals).

At the moment we have the great pleasure of being on the world-travel itinerary of a famous pair of Toronto Poles, Marcin and Malwina. Nu took us, and our Japanese-Mexican friend, Mio, to visit stunning white temples and ELEPHANTS.

This is us (minus Mio) in front of Wat Rong Khun, a temple in all-white and mirror mosaic, the lifetime project of artist Chalermchai Kositpipat.

If you're in northern Thailand and want to cavort with elephants, you can't do better than going to Baan Ruam Mit near Chiang Rai. The village has about 40 elephants, many of them hanging around waiting for you to feed them, visit them and of course, ride them.

Here's M&M and their large friend.

Rolling through Rajasthan

2007-02-19T18:25:00.000+07:00

Cindy here, just back in Bangkok after cycling across Rahjastan - twice. It's a magnificent trip featuring B&R's signature ability to get you way way out there... but with a bottle of hand sanitizer.

Naturalement we visited forts and palaces, saw plenty of camels, monkeys and hairy pigs (not to mention the ubiquitous Holy Cow!) and road our bikes through the desert landscape that seems best at producing children, the kind who come tearing across the expansive countryside, screaming hello and pumping their arms like crazy hoping for some acknowledgment. Of course you shout and wave back at them and of course they shout again, so you shout again, so they shout again and we all have a whale of a time. In the villages it feels more like a parade or you're about to win the Tour de France the way they line the streets and try for a high-five as you peddle by (behaviour to be strongly discouraged given that we are not Tour de France level cyclists).

I got oh so many great shots but here are but a few to share.

In the village of Devi Garh, about 25 km NE of Udaipur, we stayed in an over-the-top 18th century fort, once abandoned now 5-star hotelled. This is in the village, not in the hotel.

Another shot in the village, not the hotel.

A monkey with things to think about. What more is there to say? I found him taking a wee break from people watching near the Amber Fort in Jaipur.

Henna Hands. Mom and daughter's (as my dear sister amazingly guessed!).

So we're out in the total middle of the desert, having lunch and a Dhurrie rug making demo, and the rug master starts showing us how he can put his leg behind his head. So everyone starts pulling out their bar tricks and it comes to me. Now I don't want to wow them with anything too spectacular so I say, "I can stand on my head." Guess I still can.

(I couldn't resist adding this one for my mom)

A Rare Op-Ed

2007-02-06T20:22:00.000+07:00

We'll leave the eloquence to Mr. Mallaby; this is a must-read piece for anyone who thinks that we can encourage the Chinese Communist Regime to be more accountable through trade and economic support. It deserves to be reproduced in its entirety, and we will do so here:

A Palace For Sudan
China's No-Strings Aid Undermines the West

By Sebastian Mallaby
Washington Post, Monday, February 5, 2007; A15

Last week China's leader, Hu Jintao, provided Sudan with an interest-free loan to build a presidential palace. With that gesture, Hu demonstrated his contempt for the Western understanding of the world -- and for Western policy toward his own country.

Sudan, you will recall, is the scene of the Darfur genocide. Since the killing began three years ago, the United States and its allies have flown in food and medicines, provided logistical help and money for a token African peacekeeping force, and done their best to isolate the Sudanese regime, which orchestrates the massacres. They have done this not because they have a selfish interest in Darfur but because tossing babies into bonfires is a crime against humanity.

In the run-up to Hu's visit to Sudan on Friday and Saturday, there were hopes that the Chinese leader would back the West's Sudan policy.

China's diplomats are forever reassuring the world about their country's "peaceful rise," and Hu duly expressed support for an expanded peacekeeping force in Darfur. But everything else about his visit demonstrated the gap between Chinese and Western priorities.

Hu called on nations to "respect the sovereignty of Sudan." But since the end of the Cold War, the Western view of sovereignty has grown increasingly contingent. If a nation slaughters its civilians (think Rwanda, Kosovo), harbors terrorists (Afghanistan) or refuses to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors (yes, Iraq), it forfeits its right to sovereignty. It may not be invaded, but it certainly can expect to face sanctions.

Sudan, by these standards, is an easy candidate for sanctions. But China's talk of "sovereignty" is code for the opposite policy. As well as paying for a presidential palace, Hu used his trip to cancel $80 million of Sudanese debt, to announce a plan to build a railway line and to visit an oil refinery that China partly owns, basking in the fact that 80 percent of Sudan's oil goes to his country.

Hu's visit was a statement that, in the Chinese view of the world, the principle of sovereignty trumps even the most appalling human rights abuses: It brushed aside the memory of the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust. But at the same time, Hu was saying more than that. He was advancing an understanding of modernization that the West discarded 15 years ago.

By pursuing commercial ties with Sudan, Hu was implicitly saying that economic development comes first and that political development is unimportant. This was once the view of Western development organizations, which financed projects in health, education, infrastructure and so on -- but steered clear of human rights, corruption and anything else that could be deemed "political." But in the early 1990s, the Western approach changed. Development experts pointed out that independent courts and newspapers help to limit corruption and so make economic development possible. In the absence of minimal political accountability, aid money is stolen. Rather than helping Africa's poor, it is siphoned off to pay for presidential palaces.

China is not financing a presidential palace by mistake; it is doing so deliberately. It is not financing just any presidential palace; it has chosen a president so odious that his fellow African leaders hold their noses at him. But this gesture is only the tip of the iceberg. To read the accounts of Hu's Africa visit in China's People's Daily is to recall Western development thinking of a half a century ago. "From 1995 to 2003, China administered 43 sessions of the 'Advanced Education and Scientific Research Program' in 21 African countries," the paper's online version crowed yesterday. Development, in this conception, is all about technical transfers. Politics plays no part.

This Chinese understanding of development threatens to undermine the Western one. Western development aid is increasingly linked to measures of good governance, and investment from Western corporations and banks comes with conditions designed to ensure that ordinary people benefit. This promising advance cannot succeed if African dictators can ignore Western conditions with Chinese assistance.

But then there is an even more disturbing question: What does China's policy toward Sudan say about the West's policy toward China? The West is engaging with China on the theory that economic modernization will bring political modernization as well; otherwise, the West would merely be assisting the development of a communist adversary. China's Sudan policy is an assertion that this link between economic and political modernization is by no means inevitable, even in the extreme case. You can construct oil refineries, educate scientists, build ambitious new railways -- and simultaneously pursue a policy of genocide.

smallaby@cfr.org

Spectacular Arrivals

2007-02-03T04:08:00.000+07:00

We've been resisting for months upgrading to Google's "new" service which demands that we get a google account. Finally, there was no way to update the blog without doing so, so we capitulated. We'll do another post on that soon; have you ever read Google's "privacy" policy? However, NOW is the time to give you a quick update:

Cindy is in Rajistan, running another Butterfield and Robinson trip with Spectacular scenery. Jan is in New York, taking care of some business with The Epoch Times, and he'll have a chance to see the NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular with Rob, his brother, the day before The Year of the Pig commences.

Spectacular Promotional Flyer

Rajistan Weavers

Holiday Visit With Kassan

2007-01-13T05:59:00.001+07:00

Just after the New Year, Cindy and Jan made it up to Mae Hong Son, one of Thailands' Northernmost provinces. Here's few photos images to brighten up your day:

Kassan and Goei, the love of his life

Carrying goods in Kassan's village

Family and friends pose for a photo...

And...what Cindy called "a classic photo." Any ideas why?

Next posting: In the North of Thailand is a Chinese village -- the ancestors of a group of people that escaped China in the late 1940's just post-WWII. We visited them. Guess why they left?

Don't Panic - Duo Unaffected by Bombs in Bangkok

2006-12-31T23:40:00.000+07:00

Once again, we're seem to be at the epicentre of breaking bad news, but not to worry - we're A-OK.

We were out for a New Year's dinner with some friends, in a private room of a Japanese restaurant, when the cell phone calls and text messages starting arrving. It seemed much scarier initially. First we heard there were 2 bombs, then 4 more, no idea how many dead or injured.

Then we rushed home from dinner, interviewed 2 eye-witnesses and fired off the fastest article we've ever written. Check it out, hot off the presses...

The news so far is that there were 6 apparently coordinated blasts, that injured around 25 and killed 2. Creating havoc seems to be the biggest impact of the attacks since they were all in crowded, mostly downtown, areas as New Year's eve was kicking off. Because of the bombs the big parties have been cancelled and other venues closed. Right now there must be thousands of people wondering the streets of Bangkok with a stunned look and no party to go to.

20 min to New Year's in Bangkok and counting...

A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEARS TO YOU ALL!!!

Tsunami: Two Years After the Big Wave

2006-12-26T13:42:00.000+07:00

Wow, two years already? We remember that Boxing Day well. Jan was living in Sasimum village, about 90 km west of Bangkok, as Project Supervisor for his Canada World Youth exchange. Cindy was visiting. When the earthquake struck we didn't feel it since we were on a motorcycle doing a little "site seeing" (such as there were sites to see). A little later, we pulled up to a host family's house where a group of participants were gathered around a TV. The news was all in Thai and at that point seemed to be about a big earthquake in Indonesia. As the day passed, the magnitude of what had happened started to unfold.

Cindy went down to the devastated areas a couple of times during that period to write stories for the Epoch Times, her first stories actually (1 and 2):

January 27, 2005. Somporn Keoykaew's house - but not his boat -
Baan Nam Khem fishing village, Phang Nga, just north of the resort area of Phuket.

Strangely enough, there was just an article in The Nation about this very house. Apparently the Ministry of Culture spent a fortune buying the boat from its original owner, paying to restore it, and giving Somporn a bit of rent money but now what?

Fishermen in the same village on the same day.

When Cindy met them, they were spending their days listlessly poking through the rubble looking for anything still worth salvaging. According to the article above however, "the community is recovering and there are few remaining visible signs of the tragedy. New houses have been constructed to replace damaged ones..." Good news.

Looking through the Thai press today, however, 'good news' was not the dominant feature. The tone of the Bangkok Post was just plain sad - deep loss, memorials, bonds of shard tragedy. For example:
"Supit Thongtae, 48, blinked to force back the tears as he talked about his wife and 18-year-old daughter who died when the tsunami struck Ban Nam Khem in Takua Pa district in 2004.
..."He still goes out at night to the tree in the back yard where he found the body of his wife, and often stays overnight there," said his brother Wimol.

The Nation, known for being fiercely anti-the-now-deposed-Thaksin government, mostly ran stories about corruption or ineptitude.
Where did our tsunami cash go?
Western countries send complaint to police after loss of money donated to identify victims

Tsunami aid: why didn't they listen?
Flattened by the giant waves of December 26 two years ago, Ban Talay Nok now has all it needs - tsunami warning tower, school and public health centre.

The story goes on to talk about a Tsunami warning tower that still doesn't work, a brand new public health care centre that no one will use (including staff) since it's on the beach where the old one was and no one dares to go there, and a school still under construction that's 5 times bigger than it needs to be."I don't know why they give us facilities that seem useless or defective," said Rewut Harnjitr, the village headman.

Another story - Tsunami memorials are a blight on the landscape - criticizes plans for big memorials as overkill.

Perhaps the Tsunami will never be seen as a good news story.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!

2006-12-25T14:10:00.000+07:00

On Christmas Eve we finally decided to go out and celebrate the holidays, to give ourselves a real treat! We headed out the the fancy Vegetarian Cottage restaurant, a wonderful little place hidden deep in a residential neighbourhood in the north of Bangkok.

This one looks a little set up, as it was --
but once in awhile we need one of these.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah to all!

Now, for those of you not familiar with mock-vegetarian fare, it's absolutely incredible what sorts of flavours and textures can be attained using only vegetarian ingredients. Jan's always said that this type of food isn't really meat, and you shouldn't try to imagine that it is, but the creations often are amazingly tasty and flavourful in their own right. For us, it amounted to a perfect quiet romantic evening.

Our menu:
Baked garlic mushroom toast with cheese
Shark Fin Soup
Duck à l'Orange
and...

Chicken in Thai Black Pepper Sauce

Reader, lest you think that the french fries apparent in the above photo make for some sub-class fare, be aware that they are almost unavailable outside of Western fast-food outlets -- which we do not frequent. They too were a treat that evening.

Now, it wasn't quite a traditional Polish Christmas, but given the circumstances we did quite well. It was a cut above the idea of Boiled Chicken stuffed with Pad Thai, one of the original possibilities. :)

Oh, we almost forgot to mention. See the edge of Jan's glass in the bottom right corner of the shot. That's a Virgin Mary - all in the spirit of Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah to all!

We're ALL Lucky - Spectacularly So!

2006-12-20T12:32:00.000+07:00

We stand appreciatively corrected. It's true, the Holiday Wonders show is just in the Big Apple, but the equally fabulous Chinese New Year Spectacular also produced by NTDTV is touring the globe and most likely is coming to a fine theater near you. Check out this website for the exact dates, but here are its ports of call:

Canada:
Toronto - January 19 & 20 (see poster below)
Vancouver - January 2 (see poster below)
Ottawa - January 12
Montreal - January 13 & 14

US:

Atlanta.................... Los Angeles

Boston.....................New York
Chicago...................Philadelphia
Dallas......................San Francisco
Houston...................Washington D.C.

Australia / Asia:
Sydney...................Taiwan
Melbourne...> .........Japan
Brisbane..................Soel...........
Gold Coast
Canberra

Europe:
Berlin
Paris

New Yorkers are Lucky

2006-12-19T14:09:00.000+07:00

We want to tell you all about a great live show starting in NY today,
December 19 running until December 24. We know the inside scoop on this one because a few good friends of ours are involved with it and looks amazing!

It's the NTDTV Holiday Wonders Show

A little preview... looks great doesn't it?!

Click on the link and scroll down a bit - there's a short clip from it that'll give you a good flavor of what it's all about (note the removal of the 'u' from flavour to reach out to our American-based audience here). The show celebrates traditional Chinese arts - with a modern flare - but there's a little bit of Jewish in there too (which is only appropriate given the number of Jews that go out for Chinese food on Xmas): Goria Feidman will be performing on Dec 23 & 24. He performed the clarinet solos for Schindler's List's Academy Award winning soundtrack and is renowned for his tango, jazz, classical and of course, Klezmer clarinet playing (bit 'o trivia: he started his career as the the Israel Philharmonic's youngest ever clarinetist - 18 years later, he went solo).

Giora Feidman playing his Schindler's List solo at the 2004 Cinema for Peace UNICEF charity gala February 9, 2004 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Kurt Vinion/Getty Images)

The Kiev-Bangkok Connection

2006-12-07T10:57:00.000+07:00

The world just got a little smaller. One of Jan's participants from his Poland/Ukraine Canada World Youth Exchange Take II is now a frequent visitor to Bangkok. He's a flight attendant and one of his regular routes is Kiev to Bangkok. He's also been given the Toronto run, which means he can see even more of the old CWY team.

WELCOME, VITALY!

Here's the 3 of us enjoying our fresh gauva juice at the Suan Lum
Night Bazaar. Notice how orchids are used as throw-away
glass ornaments in Thailand. How much do you suppose a trendy Manhattan
joint would charge for a glass of fresh guava juice with an orchid on the side?
We paid about $1.25.

Lizhi Tells It Like It Is

2006-11-25T17:34:00.000+07:00

Recently Toronto Star columnist David Crane wrote a misguided opinion piece on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent prioritizing of human rights in his dialogue with Hu Jintao. It was of the "it's bad there, but look how much they've accomplished, and we're not perfect ourselves, so we should be nice" variety.

Are there aspects of life that have gotten better in Communist China since the cultural revolution? Definitely. Does that mean that we shouldn't address gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the CCP regime, as a priority? We think the answer is clear.

It's a matter of principle, pure and simple.

Perhaps we can forgive Mr. Crane for doubting that Prime Minister Harper indeed did act on principle -- there has been precious little of that in Canadian politics, and perhaps also in the business world with which Mr. Crane is so familiar, in recent years, especially with respect to dealing with China. But including the standard CCP propaganda is his article as evidence of progress? Mr. Crane, you should know better.

Last month the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China outlined the principles that it said must be followed for "building a harmonious socialist society by 2020." These included: "Adhering to putting people first," as well as "adhering to reform and opening up" and "adhering to democracy and the rule of law." Our interest is in supporting China's efforts to realize its goals, not self-indulgent public moralizing. -- he wrote.

Hardly, Mr. Crane. Helping China -- Yes. There are efforts by different groups in China to achieve just these things. But they have nothing to do with the governing CCP, which does everything in its power, consistently, to thwart the type of progress described here, while also consistently leaving specious platitudes such as the text above for the world to digest. Wouldn't what you wrote, Mr. Crane, be more correctly described as "self-indulgent public moralizing?" With your credentials, Mr. Crane, you really should know better!

We were slow to write a letter to The Star on the topic, but our good friend Lizhi was quick on the draw, and his letter to the editor was published a few days ago. He says it like it is.

Applaud PM on China

Only when we expose the Communist party for what it really is, will we see sweeping, positive changes

Nov. 23, 2006. 01:00 AM

Re: Posturing on China hurts Canada Column, Nov. 20.

I am shocked how David Crane can express his ignorance about China's conditions under Communist party rule so easily as he writes in his comfortable chair from the safety of Canada.

In 2000, I was a highly awarded engineer in China until I stood up to protect my right to believe in my faith in Falun Gong. I was then torn from my wife and suffered for more than 3 1/2 years in prison and experienced and also witnessed torture beyond human comprehension until I was rescued with the help of Amnesty International who deemed me a "prisoner of conscience." Right now, millions of Falun Gong practitioners are suffering and thousands have been torn from their families and tortured to death in labour camps and prisons.

If Crane or one of his family members were being tortured in the conditions that millions are facing across China today, he might not be so quick to protect the Communist party for mere trade dollars.

Being exposed for its weaknesses is what the Communist party fears most. This is why it covered up SARS that eventually spread and killed 44 Canadians. Does Crane not learn from history? And can Crane actually talk about an independent justice system in China with a straight face?

There is no doubt the Communist party is the world's master at propaganda and cover-up and it seems Crane has bought into its facade hook, line and sinker.

The Communist party is not China. It stole it 60 years ago and raped and pillaged it. And when the Communist party collapses, and it will, China will become stronger and survive as it has for countless dynasties without the Communist party.

I applaud Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his insight and principle. Only when we firmly and loudly expose the Communist party for what it really is, will we see sweeping positive changes for China and for Canada's trade goals.

Lizhi He, Toronto

Mauna Kea Again, As Promised

2006-11-23T19:40:00.000+07:00

To all of those Mauna Kea fans out there, here are a few more photos...better late than never. Now that Jan is staying put for a short time, at least, he'll take the time to expose you to some of his travels.

Mauna Kea as seen from Hilo, the large town of the east coast of Hawaii

If you really squint at the left-hand peak, you'll see some tiny white dots -- the observatories. Keep in mind, the water you're seeing is the ocean, and well be going up 4,205 meters (13,796 ft) to greet them -- that's right, four kilometers up. That's above 40% of the Earth's atmosphere.

On the road up Mauna Kea, as we head into a distinctly Martian landscape

Another little-known fact is that Mauna Kea is actually by far the tallest mountain in the world, if you measure from its base to its peak. It rises 9,750 meters (32,000 ft) from the ocean floor.

At the top of Mauna Kea, this time without telescopes

If not for the blue, it would be Mars! To see the The Gemini Northern and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescopes in an earlier blog posting, click here.

Inside the University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope

For those telescope die-hards out there (you know who you are!!!), I was lucky enough to get an inside shot of the University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope, while it was being maintained. This was the first large telescope built on the mountain, which began observing in 1970.

And, in a few posts, we'll reveal the twin Keck Observatories, the world's largest optical and infrared telescopes.

Together Again!

2006-11-21T17:50:00.000+07:00

It's been a long many months since we've written a joint entry from our home in Bangkok. We think our soi onlookers were starting to wonder what happened to their happy farang (foreigner) couple. While they indeed seemed pleased to see us together again, we're less sure what they thought about our self-portrait photo session.

On November 7, an Easy Way to Help Stop Internet Censorship

2006-11-06T15:15:00.000+07:00

On November 7, Reporters Without Borders is launching a major 24 hour online protest against internet censorship. To quote from the invitation,

"Every vote will be counted. Every click will help Reporters Without Borders to speak with more force when it condemns the behaviour of those regimes that censor what should an arena for free expression."

The concept is pretty interesting, and it will have us at the site sometime between 11am Nov. 7 and 11am Nov. 8 -- the timing of the event. It's not clear from the note, but we're guessing the times are GMT -- or local time, but it seems to us that would be more difficult to orchestrate.

"Go to www.rsf.org during this 24-hour period, find the list of 13 countries that are Internet enemies and click on an inter-active map of the world to help make the Internet black holes disappear. Each click will help to change the map’s appearance. The aim is to re-establish the Internet in the countries where it is censored, to rebuild it before the 24 hours are over."

There's a chance to record message to the founder of Yahoo, "because it [Yahoo] has been collaborating for years with the Chinese police, which arrests and convicts dissident and freelance journalists."

Also, it looks like Reporter Without Borders will be launching it's own blogging service, which is wonderful to hear. Will it be as functional as blogger? As with typepad, there is a fee associated -- but this one goes to support a model NGO, as opposed to a corporate entity. We are seriously interested! See you there.

Reporters Without Borders Publishes 2006 Global Press Index

2006-10-27T11:57:00.000+07:00

Every year we read this document, the annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index with rapt fascination. See a preview in this image:

To quote the report:

“Unfortunately nothing has changed in the countries that are the worst predators of press freedom,” the organisation said, “and journalists in North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China are still risking their life or imprisonment for trying to keep us informed. These situations are extremely serious and it is urgent that leaders of these countries accept criticism and stop routinely cracking down on the media so harshly.

Canada ranks 16th. It is also interesting to note that there are five post-communist nations in the top 15 -- clearly these countries have been eager to get the decades of media control far behind them. The Epoch Times found itself mentioned in the Asia summary:

Taiwan (43rd) continues to move up and is now just behind Spain. Hong Kong (58th) fell back though some of its media continued to be very free and the Internet is not censored at all. Vandalism against the daily paper Epoch Times and a parcel bomb sent to a journalist made some fear further attacks.

Please take a look, much fascinating information is contained within!

Quakin' in Hawaii...or Not?

2006-10-16T18:18:00.000+07:00

Today I experienced the "largest earthquake in living memory" in Hawaii, a respectable rumble measuring 6.6 Richter-scale. See the article I wrote on the topic here: Quake Shakes Hawaii into State of Disaster.

Honolulu the day before the quake. To the left is the State Capitol,
and to the center is the Iolani Palace -- the only royal palace in the States.

"Just after seven I was working, I heard that something was vibrating, and I felt my chair was shaking," said an interviewee of mine, Tony.

"Then I looked up and all the fridges were shaking. It lasted about 20 seconds."

The strange thing is, I didn't notice the earth moving. I was with a group of Falun Gong practitioners doing the exercises at Waikiki beach in Honolulu. As is always the case in Falun Gong, I was by no means in some sort of trance, but instead rather acutely aware of everything around me -- except, apparently, this. None of the practitioners on the beach noticed anything, in fact.

Quake time, 7:08am, came and went.

Some minutes later another practitioner, a building engineer by trade, came by to tell us that there had been an earthquake, and that he would likely be very busy dealing with the fallout for the rest of the day. We all noted that we hadn't seen or heard a thing.

Later, a few of us went to Chinatown and had some of the best dim sum ever, though we ate in the dark. In the afternoon we were going to go on a hike up to Diamond Head, as part of a birthday party / gift for a friend's daughter. Instead, we stayed home and the renowned Meatball the Clown came partially out of retirement to help lighten the day for some energetic young children. The birthday girl is 2nd from the right.

All the skill, but no makeup: The man behind Meatball
showcases his own original balloon creation:
Spielberg's ET, the extra-terrestrial!

For those of you who read the Epoch Times article on the quake, and are concerned about the little girl's birthday being ruined, have no fear -- Meatball not only saved the day, but also became in high demand for future parties. Too bad he's retired, and on to other things!

For those curious about my safety -- I wish I had a more captivating story to tell. Apart from plane delays, everything is great.

On Top of Mauna Kea

2006-10-15T23:27:00.000+07:00

Over 13,000 feet above sea level, on top of Mauna Kea, the largest volcano on the big island of Hawaii, are a series of famous observatories. This is a preview of a Hawaii adventure that is to land on the pages of this blog in coming days.

The Gemini Northern Telescope,
with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in the background.
Both of these have Canadian funding!

Guest Post: About Body Worlds 3 in Vancouver

2006-10-09T21:01:00.000+07:00

Hi there, guys -- it's Erin here. This comment has nothing to do with Laos and everything to do with Gunther Von Hagens' Body Worlds 3 exhibit currently being staged at Science World here in Vancouver.

Yesterday, after hearing me express some interest going to the show, Jan told me some disturbing things about Von Hagen's plastination center in Dalian, China. He said there were a number of allegations that the bodies Von Hagens used in his displays came from executed Chinese prisoners (i.e., very likely to be political or spiritual prisoners).

I was spurred to do some research this morning to verify what Jan had told me, and what I found left me deeply disturbed. Especially when I heard that the Body Worlds display includes fetuses still in the womb. What expecting mother would *think* to volunteer to donate her body AND that of her unborn child to someone who was going to put it on display for thousands of people to gawk at?

I am having a hard time keeping down food right now.

At any rate, based on my research, I've decided to send off the following letter to all local media outlets as well as Science World itself. I'll let you know if I get back any interesting replies...

It has recently come to my attention that Dr. Gunther Von Hagens, inventor of the plastination process used to preserve the bodies in the “Body Worlds 3” exhibit currently being held at Science World, has been accused of obtaining the bodies displayed in his exhibit through questionable means.

According to a 2004 article in the Guardian, Von Hagens was forced to admit that seven of the bodies displayed in a Body Worlds exhibit in London might have belonged to executed prisoners from China.

The article references email correspondence between Von Hagens and a Chinese employee in which the latter claims to have just obtained the bodies of a “young man and young woman” who were “fresh examples” of the “highest quality.”

They had both been killed by a shot to the head – a favourite method of execution employed by the Chinese government.

After this information became public, Von Hagens agreed to return seven plastinated corpses to China after admitting they may have come from executed prisoners. He went on to say that he’d instructed his Chinese staff not to accept bodies from executed prisoners.

But the fact remains that Von Hagens runs a plastination center in Dalian, China – close to three prison camps that hold significant numbers of political detainees and Falun Gong practitioners.

There is a growing body of evidence that the Chinese government has established a flourishing business selling the organs of executed prisoners, charging anywhere from US$30,000 for corneas to $170,000 for lungs. When questioned about this practice, Chinese officials have said the prisoners gave them “permission” to harvest their organs—which flies in the face of the reverence Chinese people traditionally hold for dead bodies.

But these are the same government officials who regularly spread lies about Falun Gong practitioners, saying they’re a bloodthirsty cult who persuade members to murder their own parents and babies – thereby justifying their policy of rounding up all known and suspected Falun Gong practitioners and sending them to prison camps like the ones close to Von Hagen’s plastination center.

In light of this, Von Hagen’s exhibit makes me extremely uncomfortable.

Maybe he did acquire the bodies for this exhibition through legitimate means. And maybe he really did have no idea that bodies obtained for earlier exhibitions belonged to executed prisoners – many of whom were no doubt imprisoned for displaying behavior that’s perfectly acceptable in our society, such as questioning government policies or – gasp! – doing exercises and meditating in an outdoor park.

But given the chance that this man has very likely reaped a profit (and may still be reaping a profit) from Chinese government’s outrageously inhumane treatment of political and spiritual prisoners, I am going to boycott the Body Worlds 3 exhibition and encourage everyone I know to do the same.

Sincerely, Erin Whalen

Erin is a regular reader of The Long Trek Home, and a busy mother of a 1+ year old.

Cindy safe and sound (and in Laos)

2006-09-20T23:57:00.000+07:00

We've received quite an outpouring of well-wishes over the past few days, since the Thai military took over governing the country in a bloodless coup last night. Thank you all!!!

To set the record straight, there is no threat, as far as either of us can tell. Cindy left the country last night, as she is researching a very exciting Thailand-Laos cycling trip for Butterfield & Robinson for Fall 2007. It never occurred to either of us to change any of our plans.

The coup was entirely bloodless, and its apparent goal is to restore democracy to the country, not take it away. It has been having very little effect on most people, it seems, except that under martial law gatherings of 4+ people are forbidden. So, temporarily, no group Falun Gong practice in the park. :( We will see how things unfold, as the greater ramifications of the situation become clear.

Photo of a coup soldier adorned by flowers and the king's colour (yellow),
courtesy of HellonEarth2006 at Flickr.

In the meantime, take a look at what bloggers have been doing...there's some video footage of the coup available at Poynter Online, as well as some live blogging on Global Voices. Worth checking out. The general feeling seems to be that this is a positive step, with the past prime minister having gone too far in terms of corruption and nepotism.

Fit for a Queen

2006-09-18T14:42:00.000+07:00

August 13 was the Queen of Thailand's birthday. They royal family here is a big deal, a very big deal, the very biggest deal! Auspicious occasions such as the King or Queen's birthday are national holidays with performances and celebrations in every community and village in the country. In Bangkok of course, it all happens on a larger scale. Thus, it was a huge honour and great opportunity when the Falun Dafa group in Thailand was accepted to perform for Her Majesty's birthday at Sanam Luang, the royal grounds. The hour-long performance was to show case ancient Chinese culture, since that's Dafa's roots, and the beauty of the practice, rather than the persecution. We also happen to have a number of professional performers and artists among the refugee practitioners from China.

I learned all of this when I returned from Canada. I also learned that they were short one fairy for a fairy dance and was somehow convinced that I could be transformed into a celestial beauty. After overcoming the daily frustration of coaxing cooperating of my two left feet, the miraculous transformation occurred.

The performance was a huge triumph! After our singing, drumming, dancing and flag choreography we were all called back on stage for applause and photos with the officials. Perhaps we got our message through: please don't arrest us, applaud for us.

I'm the 4th fairy from the right. Trust me I am.

This is from our dress rehearsal but at least you can see me - sort of.
I'm the one with the big grin.

Cycling in Provence

2006-09-16T12:12:00.000+07:00

We're coming to the end of an intense week of cycling in Provence! From magnificent vinyards that make the famous Cote-du-Rhone wine, to silvery olive groves, to the Alpilles (little alps), to ancient hill-fortress cities bustling anew, we biked for six days. Day six included arguably the most difficult ascent in the Tour de France, the imposing Mt. Ventoux -- optionally.

The cyclists approach the St Paul de Maussole hospital, still functioning
since Van Gogh painted some of his most famous works there.

Hiking in the Tatra Mountains

2006-08-26T14:30:00.000+07:00

Post from Jan: It's been quite an amazing experience. I've been learning intensely the Butterfield and Robinson way of creating travel experiences -- quite specific and amazingly well put together. I've managed to get in some spectacular hiking as well, and best of all it's part of the job.

The Tatra Mountains in late August

Having hiked all over the world, truth be told, I never realized how breathtakingly beautiful the Tatras are. With the mountain town of Zakopane as a base, multiple amazing hikes surround you! I'd recommend it to anyone. Starting today, I'm guiding the Krakow to Budapest tour, check out the synopsis here. J.

How transparently ridiculous can a Chinese regime statement be?

2006-08-17T01:50:00.000+07:00

The answer is: Extremely ridiculous. Ridiculous to the point that, if it wasn't people's reputations and very lives at stake, it would be silly. Come to think of it, we think we've found another piece of evidence that makes us even more certain that organ harvesting is happening, just as Kigour and Matas have said. This evidence is quite simply the regime's total inability to provide any evidence that would suggest otherwise, even after months have passed.

David Kilgour explains his report on Organ Harvesting
from Falun Gong practitioners in China at the National
Press Club, Washington, in late July.

Of course, we will not link to the regime's second response to the K&M report on organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. It came out on July 26; if you are determined to read it I'm sure you'll be able to find it. Here, we have a policy of not posting hate propaganda. Charles Liu aka Bobby Fletcher please take note.

K&M wrote a simple, yet expremely revealing rebuttal to the Chinese regime's assertions. It can be seen here. It's worth reading, as a light, simple deconstruction of contemporary communist propaganda.

The Warsaw Uprising Remembered

2006-08-02T01:32:00.000+07:00

Few people in the West know about the Warsaw Uprising, a bloody WWII battle in the City of Warsaw that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Poles. The true details of this two-month rebellion against Nazi occupation were supressed in Poland by the Soviet-backed communist government, until after communism there fell in 1989.

A young Polish Boy Scout pays tribute at the Warsaw Uprising Memorial
on August 1, 2006

Jan wrote an article on the topic, which can be viewed here. In reference to the photo above, thousands of Boy Scouts, some of them in their teens, are believed to have died in the line of duty during the uprising. Recently, a museum on the subject was completed in Warsaw, designed to be interactive and appeal to younger audiences. It can be found here.

Oh, Why do We Waste the Rind?

2006-07-28T19:20:00.000+07:00

The other night, one of our abundantly generous refugee neighbours brought me a hearty home cooked meal - by no means the first time. Her favourite ingredient of late is highly versatile, subtly sweet, delicate and crunchy and 100% vegetarian. And although widely available in North America, there it's treated as trash or at most, compost. But never do we consider it dinner. What is this amazing unsung hero? Why it's watermelon rind. Indeed!

So far I've had egg and watermelon rind stuffed dumplings (a.k.a. jiaozi, pot stickers, gyoza), watermelon rind and cabbage soup and this meal from the other night.

Watermelon rind stir fry, sweet-salty fried peanuts,
red bean rice, egg and cilantro soup (partially consumed)

After some research I discovered what must be the root cause of this oversight in our cuisine: the National Watermelon Promotion Board (covering the US and Canada) thinks skin is for sculpting not eating. They have over 150 recipes -- from watermelon feta bruschetta to shrimp watermelon sate -- but do you see the word "rind" mentioned once? NO!

(If you know something about watermelon rind cooking you might guess that the pickle recipe has some rind in it, but they don't dare use the r-word in the title. I mean, everyone has watermelon rind pickle recipe, even Martha Steward, but have you ever been served one?).

When I looked elsewhere I did find a few rind recipes: Fried corn-meal watermelon rinds and Gingered watermelon rind look good. For the rest you'll have to go visit your own Chinese neighbour.

So you know: Watermelon peel is also rich in Vitamin C, Calcium, Potassium, Phosphorus and Chinese medicine uses rind extract as an herbal laxative and to lower cholesterol.

And just to make sure the Watermelon Carver's Guild doesn't come after me, here are some suggestions of what you can do before you serve up a tasty dish of peel.

La Roule de Paris Spins Through Bangkok

2006-07-22T09:52:00.000+07:00

Our block in Bangkok has a new view - La Roule de Paris, a 60 meter high ferris wheel. Purportedly straight from Paris, with previous stints in the UK and The Netherlands, this flashy shiny wheel will be stationed at the Suan Lum Night Bazaar for a total of 6 months (till mid-November or so). I guess I'll have to give it a spin before it rolls away. If I snap any stellar shots from its heights I'll be sure to post them.

La Roule de Paris spins in Bangkok

The Suan Lum Night Bazaar (for those who haven't visited yet -- hee hee) is our next door neighbour. It's a 45 acre compound (or so this site claims - it doesn't seem that big to me), 3,000 stall, government (vs. mafia) run market. It's actually pretty good with a lot of unique vendors and artisans. We especially appreciate its surprisingly effective sound-absorbing system (intentional or not). Despite the giant stage with loud live music every night to entertain beer garden crowds, somehow the deafening din doesn't penetrate to our little community on the other side of the wall. We're not sure how that's possible, but we like it!

WARNING!! - No children should read this section!

I took the above photo while viewing the wheel with a couple of visiting Cannucks - friends of friends (now first tier friends in their own right). I won't mention names to preserve the reputation of a soon-to-be successful lawyer, but there's a tale I have to tell. As we got chummy, and chatted about home, a daring confession was made: my new friend had been, as a boy, in love with a certain blue beauty - Smurfette. He could still describe vividly the photo he was lucky enough to capture in her embrace as a 10-year-old at Canada's Wonderland. The punch line? That Smurf was ME! I thought it was hilariously funny at first, but then... he seemed a little freaked out. Like I had shattered something of his childhood. And then I realised I had broken the cardinal rule for costumed characters - I destroyed the magic.

Sorry!

Sometimes you get lucky...

2006-07-18T23:33:00.000+07:00

When Jan was taking macro shots of the black-eyed susans recently, he never expected that another visitor would enter the frame.

Little bee enters the frame

This reminds Jan loosely of a shot once taken while diving off the Vancouver coastline. The divers arranged themselves in a semi-circle near a pretty sea anemone, and when the photos were developed they realized that there was a pacific giant red octopus sitting in the middle of the frame...quite the surprise!

Independent Report on Organ Harvesting in China:Yes, it's happening, big time.

2006-07-18T13:52:00.000+07:00

Kilgour and Matas' 46-page independent report on organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China concludes:

"We have come to the regrettable conclusion that the allegations are true. We believe that there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners. Their vital organs, including hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas, were virtually simultaneously seized for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries." (emphasis added by us)

To read the report, the appendices (best to read them in entirety) and the two Davids' response to the Chinese Embassy denials of the practice (and pushing their hate propaganda) see:

investigation.redirectme.com

See the press conference live (with links to other excellent video on the topic, including interview with Cindy Gu of The Epoch Times):

Kilgour - Matas Press Conference

We have seen some attacks on Kilgour and Matas, for example saying that they were paid off. As it happens, these two fellows are somewhat beyond reproach, so such attacks only serve to destroy the credibility of the accusers. See the excellent column on Kilgour written by Peter Worthington, in the Toronto Sun:

A man of principles

Kilgour and Matas are taking their findings to Washington next, with a press conference at the National Press Club on Thursday, July 20.

There are no coincidences

2006-07-11T10:44:00.000+07:00

A post from Jan: As some of you might know, I am in Calgary as we speak, here to help out with the Falun Gong float in the Stampede parade (already done) as well as to gain access to my much-ignored "photo-bin" -- a repository of all of my pre-digital photography. I plan to digitise some of the best images to build a portfolio. Also, as the previous post attests, I get to see one of my favourite nephews and his parents, as well as a number of other friends.

But let's cut to the chase -- there's a story to be told here. Last Friday, in pursuit of a high angle photo of our float, I walked the entire parade route looking for a suitable vantage point. I found only one, a rooftop patio around nine stories up.

I saw an elevator that looked like it fit the bill, got on, and soon found myself amidst a small rooftop crowd chatting steadily away about matters both interesting and mundane. I struck up a few conversations near the guardrail, and discovered that yes, indeed, an excellent view was to be had.

The Falun Dafa float at the Calgary Stampede parade
500,000 people on the street apparently saw it that day

I soon noticed that there was also free food at the venue, and it quickly dawned on me that I was at some sort of function, likely a private one. The moment that thought struck, a man politely asked me if I was part of this or that company, and let me know in no uncertain terms that it was definitely a "private" affair. I apologised for crashing the party, and as I turned my heels to leave, before me stood a familiar face.

"UBC, ten years ago?" I whispered (UBC is University of British Columbia, for the uninitiated).

I was met with a confused look.

"Jan?"

Turns out that lab partner and also good friend from my early undergraduate days was one of the crowd, and in an instant I was transformed from being a party crasher to a party guest.

I shared with him the short version of the last ten years of my life, and he did likewise with me. As I spoke about my near-miraculous healing from Guillain-Barre syndrome through Falun Gong, he looked particularly interested, and later asked many questions about it. Turns out he has an illness that has plagued him since we knew each other, and like I once did, is looking for "alternate" ways to deal with it -- modern medicine being at a loss.

We'll see each other soon in Edmonton.

As our conversation was drawing to a close, I saw the Falun Dafa float approaching in the parade, and we both went to the railing to look and take photos. You've already seen one of the resulting images. Here's another one, from a little earlier during my stay up high:

The band that led the Stampede parade: Perfect formation

This image is quite fitting as a closer to this little story. Through this day's events, I faced once again with a strong sense that everything happens for a reason, that it is somehow all arranged perfectly, much as was this band -- the music was also strikingly well performed. I often tell people that I don't believe in coincidences. When I shared this idea with my friend, all he could do was nod profusely in agreement.

Great to see you again, Sid.

In Calgary with Brett

2006-07-11T02:40:00.000+07:00

...and his technology-saavy mom, Laurie! Here we are on the C-Train, Calgary's light rail transit. The photo was taken by emailed directly from Lauries smart cell phone, and voila -- here it arrives on our blog.

Brett & Jan play the "take the trailmix piece
out of the hand as quickly as possible" game

Organ Harvesting Report to Appear Thursday

2006-07-05T19:00:00.000+07:00

Last May, former Canadian parliamentarian and Secretary of State David Kilgour, and human rights lawyer David Matas decided to investigate the allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China. Their report is due out tomorrow, but on Monday, Canadian news Channel CTV interviewed Kilgour and got a preview of what is to come.

Kilgour (L) and Matas (R) at a press conference announcing their intentions

"I don't think anyone can have any doubt that this unbelievable practice is continuing," Kilgour said of his findings.

The rest of the story: China involved in harvesting organs: Cdn. report

We are very impressed with this pair for taking head-on what most politicians and diplomats want to avoid at any costs -- allegations that already have the Chinese Communist regime representatives frothing at the mouth.

We look forward to reading the report, which comes out on Thursday!

For those interested, an article about the Chinese Embassy in Canada avoiding issuing visas to Kilgour and Matas: China Embassy Dodging Organ Harvesting Probe, Says Ex-MP.

In case it is unclear, we are not talking about Sujiatun here, but a network of Chinese hospitals / concentration camps that supplies organs to willing buyers -- within one or two weeks, instead the 2-5 year wait necessarily anywhere else.

Good comprehensive article on the topic: Chinese Hospitals Scramble for Organs.

Happy International Canada Day

2006-07-01T20:20:00.000+07:00

When people ask us where we're from the answer isn't always obvious. Canada? Thailand? Toronto? Bangkok? Poland? A suitcase? So much depends on who's asking and where we're standing. However, no matter what, no matter how far away we are or how frequently we come back, the old adage holds true: You can take the girl (boy) out of Canada, but you can't take Canada out of the girl (boy).

When Cindy was a CUSO in Thailand, a clause in her contract listed all of the holidays CUSOs were entitled to take off. Canada Day was included (being a Canadian organisation). I'm pretty sure nobody ever refused to show up for work on a random Wednesday in early July because it was unthinkable to labour on such an important day. But occassionally when you live abroad, you'll be writing down the date and suddenly notice that you almost missed an important birthday -

Happy International Canada Day everyone!!

In honour of this special day, Cindy wrote done some musings about what it's like to be a Canadian abroad. It's a fun little article so click here and enjoy the read.

Seeing Through the Great Firewall of China

2006-06-21T22:16:00.000+07:00

Courtesy of inspiration from David Fickling at the Guardian and Google, we have an easy way to show you the immediate effects of self-censorship by Google when using its search engine.

Take the search term, "Tiananmen Square".

Here are the results for google.cn | Here are the results for google.com

The google.cn search yields exactly 38 "heartwarming" photographs, while the google.com (read: uncensored) version gives us approximately 13,300 images -- with 15 out of 20 on the front page being about the 1989 protest.

There is a new website up, dedicated to "a gentle reminder to Google that its motto is: Don´t be evil."

Take a visit. It's one of the nicest approaches we've seen to encourage Google to change its ways.

The Marvelous Land of Newfoundland

2006-06-16T06:38:00.000+07:00

Last week, we took our moms to Newfoundland. Some might think it an odd road trip quartet, but the trip was a huge success!

Newfoundland is just incredible - if you've never been there GO! It's a land of breathtaking landscapes - from rock cliff to tundra to cottage country - and more characters than a Robert Altman film. Along the way we met Albert, the 69-year-old retired fisherman B&B keeper who served up unlimited fresh crab with his tales of four generations on the island for a bedtime "snack." Then there was vivacious Kimmy, one of the first three women Newfies permitted by the men to join an off-shore fishing crew. She regaled us with tales of life on the Rock for three solid hours while we trolled around Twillinggate looking for whales. Fascinating to hear about the state of the fisheries practically from the fish's mouth. Basically it's a study on how to use public policy to get fisherfolk out of the water.

The rocks around the quaint island-town of Twillinggate.
It's as Newfoundland as Newfoundland gets.

Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve.

A foggy view of some of the 24,000 Northern gannet,
20,000 black-legged kittiwake, 20,000 common murre,
and 2,000 thick-billed murre you can see there.

On the way to Gros Morne National Park.
Stunning country!

And Five More

2006-06-06T18:53:00.000+07:00

The house was almost overflowing with Gordon (Cindy's bro), Helen and their five kids there too. Fourteen sleeping at the homestead! Actually, come to think of it, it did overflow -- Freda and Manny stayed at a hotel.

Avraham, Tziporah, Chana, Leah, Menachem

A sunny day project.
The egg didn't turn out so well but the veggie nuggets sure were tasty!

Fast Forward: The Next Generation

2006-06-05T22:01:00.000+07:00

Here are some shots of some the young people that we came to Canada to see! First off, we arrived for our cousins' Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremony, which created a wonderful opportunity for a Drukier family reunion, the first in 11 years.

At Matt and Mira's B'nai Mitzvah ceremony

There were many more kids that came for the reunion, and of course we will celebrate them in upcoming posts.

Visiting with Marysia and Adam, two of Jan's sibs

The Drukier partiarch Manny reads to the younger generation:
Our nephew Brett and the much-loved spaniel Zoe

Night Shots

2006-05-30T12:22:00.000+07:00

After leaving Ukraine, Jan did some night photography, as part of honing his skills in the art. Here are some of the results:

A night view of the Main River, a tributary of the Rhine,
as it flows through downtown Frankfurt.

The Ratusz Tower in the Main Square in Krakow

A view of the London Eye and Big Ben overlooking the Thames

Ukraine on the Brain

2006-05-22T11:57:00.000+07:00

After Israel Jan found himself in Ukraine, giving an introductory journalism workshop. He spent several days in Kiev, but also travelled to the small town of Ostroh, to do a seminar on Ethical Journalism at the renowned Ukrainian university, Ostroh Academy.

Jan presents an Ethical Journalism workshop at Ostroh

After developing the principles of ethical journalism and examining several case studies, the students debated the ethics of Wang Wenyi's interruption of Hu Jintao's speech in Washington. Students overwhelmingly felt that Wenyi's actions were ethical, as they drew the world's attention to a topic that was being ignored -- an important role for an ethical journalist to play. Still, we wouldn't recommend similar actions in the future...

Small group discussion of the ethical dilemma

The Ostroh students were very hospitable, taking the visitors on a tour of the town. A large, derelict Synagogue stands in the center of town.

Inside the synagogue in Ostroh

For persepctive, the columns are three persons wide.

A tower at the castle in Ostrog, with a goat standing guard

Back in Kiev, Jan was able to discover the beauty of Ukraine under clear skies for the duration of the visit, but also in Kiev's fascinating Underground. Cost per trip: about 20 US cents.

Central station in the Kiev Underground

On the Subway

Weddings abound in Kiev in the springtime, and under the sunny skies many photo shoots of happy couples were seen. Jan took some shots, too.

Bride twirls around near the Presidential Place,
while the groom instructs the photographers

A limo waits for a couple emerging from St Michael's Golden Dome Cathedral

Jan also had the chance to visit with one of his students from his last Poland-Ukraine Canada World Youth program. Snap-happy Vitaliy was an excellent guide to the sights of Kiev.

Vitaliy (left) and buddy in the center of town.
Note the camera ready for action

And finally for a bit of inspiration: the famous stone that marks the start of the Orange Revolution in Kiev, in Kontraktova square. Supporters first gathered here to start the peaceful protests that ended communist rule in Ukraine.

The Stone in Kontraktova square

Fast Forward: Auschwitz Forum Article in Gazeta Wyborcza

2006-05-14T21:22:00.000+07:00

For those of you that can read in Polish, a good article about the recent "Appeal to the World" forum on crimes against humanity in China held in Auschwitz appeared in Poland's largest newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza. An english-language article article in The Epoch Times (written by Jan) can be found here.

"Appeal to the World" article in Gazeta Wyborcza on May 10

This article also marks the first time that Jan's photography was published in a major Polish daily. Let's hope there's more of this to come!

Cousin Joe and the Negev

2006-05-12T04:55:00.000+07:00

Finally...the photos you've all been waiting for! Here is our very own Cousin Joe, native to Be'er Sheva, the gateway to the Negev Desert. And with him...Cousin Jan, visiting for a couple of days.

Cousin Joe and Cousin Jan, in Joe's backyard

Joe seems to have quite the green thumb. Jan was given a detailed tour of the garden, which included flowers, an artichoke bush, and citrus trees.

A navel orange in Joe's backyard.

Cousin Joe was an absolutely excellent host, taking alot of time out of his day to give Jan a genuine cook's tour. Highlights of the tour included a drive around Be'er Sheva as well as a nearby Bedouin village, and a visit to the complex concrete symbolism of the Negev Brigade Memorial, which pays homage to an Israeli military unit that distingushed itself in the war for Israel's independence.

Side profile of the Negev Brigade Memorial

Closer up: An affectionate young couple sits atop the Memorial

Jerusalem Stone

2006-05-06T17:26:00.000+07:00

When in Jerusalem, perhaps its most striking feature is the stone. In the old city, perhaps, this is obvious -- but there are also building codes stipulating that every new edifice must, at least on the outside, be made of stone. This creates an amazing effect. Here are a few photos of Jerusalem stone:

Jewish gravestones on a Mount of Olives hillside,
outside the walls of the old city

Dividing Wall: Not yet completed, on the left is Palestine,
and on the right Israel
See if you can find the photo-editing error, a ghost image

Golden Gate of Jerusalem, sealed shut until,
according to the Jewish tradition, the Messiah comes

Meet the New Regional Director

2006-05-01T16:26:00.000+07:00

Or maybe you already know her...

Cindy got a new job: Thailand Regional Director for Butterfield & Robinson, the Toronto-based luxury adventure travel company that she started with this season, guiding walking trips to Vietnam and Cambodia. Now she's in charge of research, logistics, trouble-shooting, writing guide manuals and traveller trip information, etc. and of course, some guiding too. B&R doesn't run that many trips to Thailand at present, so on the guiding and support end of things it shouldn't be too heavy a workload, but we shall see how the rest goes. Overall it should be an interesting year since Thailand trips are all cycling holidays for families with kids in the 8+ range. So, after a 5-year lull from those heady days in Chiang Mai, it's back on the bike for Cindy in Thailand.

For your black and white and sepia viewing pleasure, here are some of Cindy's shots from her last trip to Vietnam.

The streets of Hanoi

Life along the river in Hoi An

Travelling back to our riverside hotel in Hoi An after a beautiful, long
morning walk. The picture above is taken from the same boat ride.

ABDUCTION: At a Theater Near (Some of) You

2006-04-30T12:53:00.000+07:00

We decided to jon the throngs of critics in promoting an amazing new documentary film that's been winning awards acorss the globe... And now its earned a featured mention on our blog.

ABDUCTION: The Megumi Yokota Story directed by Cindy's good friend from university, Chris Sheridan, and his fabulous wife (and now good friend), Patty Kim.

It's a compassionately told story of a Japanese couple's fruitless, three-decade effort to rescue their daughter who was abducted by North Korean spies when she was only 13-years-old.

Truth be told, neither of us have had the opportunity to see the masterpeice yet, but considering the great press they've been getting, that they won the Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary at Slamdance Film Festival among other awards, and that Chris and Patty appeared live on CNN's "American Morning" last Friday, we feel confident it recommending it to you. The story made big press in Asia but not as much in North America but now everyone will know it.

The film is showing in Toronto at the Hot Docs Film Festival April 29 (hurry!) and May 1. Then at film festivals in Baltimore (May 11-14), Atlanta (June 9-17), and Sydney (June 9-25).

Jerusalem at Passover and Easter

2006-04-29T21:54:00.000+07:00

[Photo of the Day] Jerusalem: Old and New

As some of you may know, Jan was in Israel for about a week following his trip to Switzerland. Here is a taste of what he saw there. Let's just say that Jerusalem is an unforgettable experience. This is the view of the old city from the east, with the Dome of the Rock at the left

A Voice Heard Around the World: Wang Wenyi

2006-04-23T14:33:00.000+07:00

Dear Readers: By now you've almost certainly heard about Wang Wenyi, the Epoch Times journalist who challenged Hu Jintao during his recent "highly-scripted" speech at the White House.

Wenyi, a Falun Gong practitioner, unfurled a banner that read "Falun Dafa is Good" and proceeded to implore George Bush to intervene to stop the killing of Falun Gong practitioners in China.

[Wang Wenyi speaks out at the White House.
Note the Chinese reporters pulling down her banner.
Several media reports say that she was assaulted by him.
Photo Credit: Roger L. Wollenberg/Getty Images]

What Wenyi did was well beyond the scope of her conventional role as a journalist, as she was there on a press pass. It may impede The Epoch Times from gaining similar media credentials in the future, and perpetuate an inaccurate depiction of The Epoch Times as a "Falun Gong newspaper" -- this much we have gathered from the numerous media reports.

Yet it also has to be noted that everything that she did say was true! And, the overwhelming media response to her actions has been largely positive. Here is an excerpt, from Investors.com, for example:

"But just maybe there was something deliciously reportorial about Dr. Wang's protest. It drew attention to the many victims of Beijing's oppression at a time when so much of the Western media gloss over the ugly side of modernizing China. Surely it was no ruder than some of the White House press corps' antics."

See The Epoch Times statement on Wenyi's actions.

Unfortunately, many of the media, while hailing her "courage" and glorifying her act of civil disobedience, still continue to gloss over the reason why Wenyi went to such drastic measures to have her voice heard. It is:

The ample evidence that Falun Gong practitioners, and perhaps some Chinese dissidents are being slaughtered for their organs at record pace, even as we write these words.

Read The Epoch Times April 19 "Dear Colleague" letter urging other media to investigate.

For those who doubt, there is evidence enough, at least, for the international community to DEMAND an genuinely independent investigation into organ harvesting in Chinese labour camps ASAP. Independent (as in random, unplanned, with unrestricted access) as opposed to regime-planned visits , as was the case of the show "tour" given to US diplomats of the Sujiatun hospital many weeks after the initial disclosures about the camp.

The two sources of the initial information about the Sujiatun death camp spoke publicly for the first time recently. You can read their statements here and here, respectively.

[Annie and Peter go public with their information
Photo Credit: The Epoch Times]

An April 19 BBC report on organ harvesting in China is well worth a read as well.

Wenyi was not the only person to be removed from Hu's presence. During his speech at Yale, CNN Associate Producer Joe Vaccarello was ejected because he asked Hu if he "had seen the demonstrators" outside the university. Said the article,

"Helaine Klasky, a Yale spokesperson, said that the journalist was sent out of the meeting because he broke 'all ground rules' and engaged in disorderly behavior."

Since when is asking unpleasant questions "engaging in disorderly behaviour?" We are still in shock at the extent that Western institution after institution kowtows to Beijing. We are also amazed at the numerous posts on blogs and elsewhere that decry the revelations of atrocities taking place in China as "making China look bad." To the authors of such messages, we suggest remembering:

The Chinese communist regime is not China. It is not the cause of the successes that China has enjoyed, but rather the cause of the living hell that Chinese people have endured for the past 50+ years. Making the regime "look bad" inevitable if one is to look at it at all. China, on the other hand, is an incredible country with 5000 years of history -- it deserves MUCH MUCH better than the dictatorship it now suffers.

We feel that the regime's demise is inevitable -- and our hope is that a peaceful transition can be achieved with the will of some of the more rational elements of the leadership, instead of a sort of bloodbath that had characterized all of the "movements" in China in its communist history thus far (and most of the successions of dynasties, for that matter, as we understand).

Comments are welcome -- although with respect to our recent "fan" Charles Liu, we're guessing we already know what you're going to say.

Ma belle Geneve...

2006-04-16T18:37:00.000+07:00

Jan spent just over two weeks in Geneva, home to numerous private banks, UN bodies, as well as multinational corporations. Plans changed as the UN Commission on Human Rights was dissolved just prior to his arrival, its powers given to a new Council that will meet for the first time in June of this year.

[Geneva lakeside in the morning, at Quai Wilson]

Perhaps the most beautiful parts of the city are the quai areas where the city downtown meets Lake Geneva.

[A view from Quai Wilson in the evening]

[Candlelight Vigil at the Quai, in front of the Palais Wilson,

home of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights]

Early on during Jan's stay, Falun Gong practitioners and others calling for basic human rights in China held several activities, including a candlelight vigil to commemorate the deaths of thousands of practitioners at the hands of Communist Party authorities.

It's not all landscapes for this post, however -- many wonderful faces were seen in Geneva, including that of this young boy:

[Swiss boy and his father, though rumour had it
that his family immigrated from Sweden]

It was not all business in Geneva either. Jan managed a visit to Geneva's Museum of Ethnography (MEG), which had several fascinating exhibits, including the highly topical Nous autres, which roughly translates as, "Us and the Others."

[Entrance hall to Geneva's MEG; see the photographer?]

Nous autres tag line: Are other communities made up of savages, role models or merely people like us?

[Woman engages the Nous autres exhibit on "stigmatizing" others]

One part of the exhibit focused on methods such as hate propaganda are used to "otherate" people, as in campaigns to make them appear different or threatening in the eyes of society. This one hit home in a big way.

Sandstorm is going to Cannes!

2006-04-11T22:52:00.000+07:00

Switzerland updates will come soon, but here's a news flash -- we recently learned that one of our favourite (albeit difficult at times to watch) films is going to be screened at the Cannes film festival this year. Well done!

Click HERE to view the trailer!

Eating Well in Poland

2006-04-05T23:13:00.000+07:00

Before moving on to Switzerland in blog-land, Jan wanted to take his hat off to his good friend Mariusz, who put up with him for almost a month while he was in Poland. It was a great opportunity for childhood friends to rediscover each other again.

[Photo of they day] Eating well wasn't a challenge, despite a tight schedule,
because of Poland's plentiful small grocery stores. Any Polish mom would proud!

Comments are welcome!

Sounding the Ligawka in Ciechanowiec

2006-03-30T12:14:00.000+07:00

I bet that title didn't make much sense to most of you, except those dedicated Poles out there!

Przemek sounds the Ligawka

The heavily bundled figure in the photo is none other than the famed Przemek, Jan's past co-worker and now good friend. He is sounding ("playing" would be an overstatement) none other than the Ligawka, Poland's equivalent of a didgeridoo, in the very fields that inspire him in his painting and writing. Jan made a 24-hour trip to the Ciechanowiec area to discover just what made this strange man tick.

China and a World Without Communism Forum Very Successful!

2006-03-27T19:54:00.000+07:00

The China and a World Without Communism forum worked out remarkably well, with a near-full house attending.

[Photo of the Day] Keynote speaker Erping Zhang
expounds upon instability in China's social and economic spheres;
Krzysztof Lozinski is to his right (photo taken by Mariusz Bral)

While Zhang put together a convincing argument weaving together statistics and recent reports from within the Middle Kingdom, Lozinski tackled the issue of communism itself, as an ideology put into practice. A report on the event can be found here: Nine Commentaries Forum Held Successfully in Polish Parliament

Shot of the crowd (Photo by Mariusz Bral)

So why wasn't Jan taking photos as usual? Because he was locked up in a tiny soundproof room quickly translating Polish to English for the duration of the forum. Translation for most of the speakers went reasonably well, but for one Jan was in a perpetual sweat. The fellow spoke so quickly that it was near-impossible to keep up. Hats off to those professional simultaneous translators!

Quick update: Forum and Sujiatun

2006-03-19T11:50:00.000+07:00

It's unbelievable how time begins to fly when one gets really busy. Glancing at the blog for the first time in awhile, Jan realizes that it's been three weeks since the last post!!! To him, it feels as if he was just in Norway a few days ago...and so much to do at this very moment!!!

So this will have to be a very quick posting.

Jan's been helping some local activists in Poland organize a forum titled, China and a world without communism. This has turned out to be alot more work than expected, so he has really been burning the midnight oil (and seeing his grandma and a few friends from time to time). The forum, which is being held in the Polish parliament, is shaping up well, there are some big names attending and nearly a full house in the audience.

A promotional poster for the forum

Before i sign off, it is imperative that something about Sujiatun Concentration Camp be written here. For those unfamiliar with the name, it refers to a place of unimaginable horror that was revealed in the last two weeks by a Chinese journalist seeking refuge in the US.

In essence, it is a facility housing people to be used for organ transplant purposes. When it comes to organ transplants, the highest quality organs are taken from live patients. Guess what happens to the people inside?

Photo of the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital
of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine
-- attached to the Sujiatan Concentration Camp.

To top it off, all of the people therein are Falun Gong practitioners -- apparently "suitable" for such macabre dealings because of the regime's tacit policy to dehumanize them, and to report all deaths as suicides, if at all.

I won't write more about Sujiatun here, there is plenty to read about in the links I provided above. One interesting article is from an investivative journalist posing as an organ buyer, calling hospitals in the general area of the concentration camp.

In the Land of the Vikings

2006-02-26T14:44:00.000+07:00

Cindy and Jan have parted ways for a little while, though always together in mind and spirit. Jan heads to Europe for a series of activities there, including the 61st UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, preceded by a month's stay in Poland. Cindy will continue with her work in Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as in Thailand. We'll rendez-vous again in Canada again in a few months.

Meanwhile, Jan has made a brief stop in Bodo, Norway, to visit with the Chinese refugees that were recently repatriated to Norway from Thailand. If you missed that, please look here. There's a great human interest story to be written here, which Jan is happily taking on.

[Photo of the Day] View from the bus route in Bodo

The eight refugees arrived from Thailand only to find that two others, who had come from Japan with their two-year-old son, had settled in the area six months prior.

Happy to be in Bodo, the refugees pose for a shot

Comments are welcome!

For Rebus & Marge (and future Thailand visitors)

2006-02-25T14:58:00.000+07:00

We had the pleasure of hosting our first visitors from Canada a couple of weeks back, friends of Jan's from the good ol' Boy Scout days, long ago. Way to go Marge and Rebus!

We'll do this a few installments. First, let's put up a few shots of the happy couple. See the many stresses of their everyday life disappear over the course of their vacation -- at least during the time that they spent with us...we hope. And, we haven't forgotten about the move from Google...it's just that it will take a bit of time, and we still would like to keep you updated.

After arrival in Mae Hong Son, enjoying a first experience with a tuk-tuk

Bikers

Feeding the giant cave fish (you'll see them in a future post)

Taking a ride on an elephant. Here he's looking for a banana or two

Catching a sunset at the Fern Resort with Yours Truly

Sharing a romantic evening moment

Thanks Rebus & Marge, for creating a chance for us to take a few days to relax as well!

Blogger: Good services, bad ethics

2006-02-20T09:07:00.000+07:00

We've been souring the internet for a free blogging service that has similar services to Blogger, and as far as we can tell, there is none. There are many great free blogging services such as Wordpress out there, but they do not allow for the extensive customization of the blog template, which is something that we really depend on. We were really hoping we could find something we could use to entice those of you who are also with Blogger to move on...

Such a great service. Why did you do it, google, why?
For more on the above logo, click here.

The only thing comparable to Blogger -- and perhaps better -- is Typepad, but this service charges a monthly fee.

Actually, Wordpress is quite an advanced blogging platform, but the Wordpress.com only offers some quite limited functions. To use all of its capabilities, you need to install it yourself on a server. We happen to have that ability, so we might just do that ourselves. Off to it, then!

If anyone has any ideas, or we missed something, please let us know!!!

Ok, time to ship out from Blogger (a Google product)

2006-02-15T13:11:00.000+07:00

It's time to move on from Blogger. There have been several analyses done of Google.cn and it's clear that the search engine has been designed as a willing tool to spread the Chinese regime's propaganda, hate-inciting or otherwise. For the story, real simple, see noluv4google.com.

Recent campaign to "breakup"

with Google on Valentine's Day

For the a more detailed report compiled by Dynamic Internet Technology, Inc. --

Google.cn's Self-Censorship

We will be moving to Wordpress, and welcome other Blogger bloggers to do the same. Or, choose another service -- noluv4google has a great list. There is a very simple import tool to move Blogger blogs to Wordpress that I will be testing out momentarily, and I'll report on the results. Incidentally, Clusty is great as a search engline! We are very satisfied!

iRepress, a brilliant short film

2006-02-05T04:41:00.000+07:00

It is hard to find good satire these days, but there are exceptions. Spinning off of the last topic, here is a fantastic little gem by Mark Fiore.

Screenshot of iRepress short movie

This is a must see, particularly for those who like humour of the tongue-in-cheek variety.

Give Clusty a Try

2006-02-04T10:28:00.000+07:00

OK. The name is not the sell feature of this cool search engine but it's got some really great tools and importantly, it's NOT GOOGLE.

We began hunting for a new search engine after Google announced that it would abiding by China's demands that it block certain "sensitive" items from its searches. Try typing in Dalai Lama, Taiwan independence, democracy, human rights or Falun Gong and you get either nothing, or government sponsored slander sites. Actually, we wanted to try typing in these terms but it seems that Google won't even let you get to google.cn (launched Jan 26) from outside of China to have a look see. Google says it's complying with local laws and making small sacrifices in the name of greater access to information. Of course, the other way you could say it is 'forsaking morals to pad the bottom line.'

Actually, the bottom line is that this sort of censorship provides a DRAMATICALLY skewed vision of the world for a typical Chinese internet user. This amounts to disseminating propaganda courtesy of the Chinese Communist regime. An excellent article on this topic is, Google Fools Itself and the Chinese People.

Some have asked, other companies (Yahoo!, Microsoft) are doing it, why single out Google? Many of us hoped for better things from them! The decision is rather ironic for a campany whose motto is "Don't be evil."

In our search for how to search we found clusty.com, which we really like. Others agree. One great benefit is that it does meta searches (searching other search engines). Of course this includes Google too but it's just one of many. It's best feature is that it also categorizes your search results into clusters (hence the name) so you can examine just one stream and not be bothered by stuff that's not relevant to you. If you have no idea what this means look at the screen shot below or just try it out yourself. It's also apparantly the best there is for seaching blogs. If you download the toolbar you can tell it right away what kinds of things to search (news, images, blogs, encyclopedia, shopping, etc.).

Clusty searches "China google" (Click image for high-res)

Yes, Yahoo! and others aren't much better and also censor at Beijing's behest. In Washington last week congress thought it was important enough to organise a briefing abuot how internet companies do business in China. Too bad Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Cisco all refused to show up. Speaks volumes!

A Trip to Laos

2006-02-02T11:21:00.000+07:00

Yesterday, we decided to extend our visas to Thailand and to get away from it all for a day. We headed to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. En route, we stopped in Nong Khai, which is opposite Vientiane on the Thai side of the Mekong River.

[Photo of the Day] Wat Sala Kaew Ku, otherwise
known as The Garden of the Crystal Grotto.

A very unusual park featuring many gigantic statues of Buddha Sakyamuni and several Hindu gods is found near the city, so we decided to visit before going to the border. There are variants of the above photo in the photo album of many a tourist who has visited this place (our guess!), and a particularly interesting one can be found here.

A black & white image of an unspecified buddha,
probably Boddhisatva Janguli

As far as we can tell, the image in the above photo is Boddhisatva Janguli, a Buddha from the Nepalese tradition, as she has three faces and six arms -- the latter not pictured here, but part of the sculpture. After Nong Khai, we headed across the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge, the first to span the lower Mekong.

The Mekong River (dry season!!!), view from Vientiane shore

A local tuk tuk (see below if you haven't seen one before) dropped us off at the city market, where we had a rarity of vegetarian noodle soup of the highest quality. Cindy was thrilled, as was Jan, recently on a noodle soup kick.

View from our lunch table at the Vientiane Market

Later we met up with an old friend of Cindy's who runs the Canada Fund in Laos, though we learned that the Fund is apparently closing up shop in this country. We also had a chance roam the city streets for an hour or two. Then, we rushed back to Thailand and made our way back to Bangkok.

Tuk tuk, photographed while rushing
(at 20km/h or so...) back to the border

Comments are welcome!!!

Truthfulness - Compassion - ForbearanceArt Exhibit Arrives in Thailand

2006-01-27T03:38:00.000+07:00

An art show has been travelling around the world, a collection of paintings made by Falun Gong practitioners, and last Wednesday it made its first appearance in Thailand. Rangsit University in Bangkok invited the exhibition, which was held the day of the university's Open House, a time when the university recruits new students. Many hundreds of people had the chance to see the show; the paintings can also be seen at www.falunart.org.

[Photo of the Day] Lotus Dancers enthrall the audience
at an assembly, and again later at the art show.

Prior to the opening of the show, Lotus Dancers performed in front of the assembly that officially opened the day, and again several times beside the art show itself. Take a look at some photos from the event by clicking here.

Thailand Detainees Head to Norway!!!

2006-01-25T02:11:00.000+07:00

[Photo of the Day] Cindy and Jan say goodbye
to Mr. Li Jianhui and Ms. Dai Ying,both of whom were
repatriated to Norway yesterday in the early morning.

If you wish to follow the story, click for the most recent update: Detained Thailand Falun Gong Refugees Find Freedom in Norway. From one of The Epoch Times articles:

"Mr. Li Jianhui, who walked to Thailand from China with his wife to escape severe persecution there, was the last of the five to receive full UNHCR protection, on Jan. 6, 2006. Prior to the start of Beijing's crackdown on Falun Gong in 1999, Mr. Li had been an affluent businessman in China. He was among the first to be arrested after the communist regime banned Falun Gong; authorities apparently made an example of him to demonstrate that no one who stuck with the practice would be immune to persecution."

Huang and Kaixin go to New Zealand

2006-01-19T05:10:00.000+07:00

Huang Guohua, one of the detainees at the Bangkok Immigration Detention Center, flew to New Zealand on January 15, along with his 4-year-old daughter Kaixin. Well done New Zealand for offering them assylum!

[Photo of the day] Kaishing "wyes" (a Thai greeting gesture)

to the camera after a Chinese drum troop presentation some
months ago. This photo is fitting as a "goodbye" to Thailand.

Meanwhile, 4 more remain in custody, though there is some talk of them also being being resettled soon to another country, likely Norway. Unfortunately, Thai authorities continue to cave into pressure from the Chinese embassy, and have not released them.

See the Epoch Times article, Freedom Bittersweet to Falun Gong Father and Daughter Resettling in New Zealand.

Cindy & Jan In the Press

2006-01-14T17:32:00.000+07:00

The article speaks for itself. Apart from the unfortunate use of the "c" word, albeit attributed to the Chinese regime, this is a great piece of reporting. Kudos to the Bangkok Post!

This one's for Mom

2006-01-12T01:29:00.000+07:00

I won the prize in Vietnam! Despite guiding a group of global trotters, I won the Bumping Into Someone You Know In An Unlikely Place Award - clearly I inherited this gene from my father.

While lunching at the Grand Hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia - believe me, it's as opulent as it sounds - who should walk in but my dear cousins Rhonda and Neil. Of course neither of us knew the other was there. The funny thing is, they only discovered me because they happened to walk into my hotel and Rhonda happened to glance at the posted seating arrangement for the New Year's Eve extravaganza that night. They debated if it could really be their Cindy then the helpful hotel fellow told them I was in dining at that very moment. Silly screams and hugs ensured before I recovered my demure. It was lovely to catch a few hours with them and the kids, Allie and Jackie, the next day just before they flew. And as proof of the encounter, here's the photo my mom's been bugging me to post.

An impromptu family reunion in Cambodia - the two kids on the left aren't related.

While I'm here, I can't resist sharing some more photos from my adventures. They're taken with my new close friend, the Lumix DMC-LX1. The reviews are true, it isn't 100% in low light conditions, but otherwise it has quite an impressive array of manual features for a non-SLR and it took some some fab shots for me. Thanks new friend!

Incense drying in the sun in Hue, Vietnam.

One of our walks took us through a village of incense makers. Everywhere we walked we saw colourful, fragrant sticks at various stages of production.

Ta Phrom temple in the Angkor complex, Cambodia.

Until now, archaeologists have left this mid-12th century ruin as it was found 700 years later. It was my favourite site of them all - particularly photogenic too. Unfortunately, we were told that the local authorities have it slated for restoration.

Many faces in Bayon Temple, Angkor
(look closely, how many can you see?)

If you liked these and want to see more, go check out the offiical photo album of my first trip with Butterfield & Robinson.

New Year's Greetings!

2006-01-02T14:25:00.000+07:00

The new year has arrived, and even though our friends are still in detention in Bangkok, some New Year's greetings are in order.

[Photo of the day: Bangkok Falun Gong practitioners
offer New Year's Greetings]

A few of us got together and had a delicious Chinese style-dinner, all home-cooked of course.

[Crystal cooks up a storm for New Year's]

All of the small streets (soi) in Bangkok converted into party mode for a night, with delicious food, deafening karaoke, and yes, abundant alcohol. Apparently the karaoke went on until 4am, but those of you who know yours truly probably are aware that I was fast asleep by then.

[Party in the streets of Bangkok]

The children at the party stayed up unusually late as well, and there was alot of laughter, though much less than we would have liked, I think. Nana's mom is one of the practitioners still in detention.

[Wishing you a happier New Year next year, Nana]

Of course, there are many people in the world who are experiencing all sorts of difficulties, some of them much more severe than what is happening here in Bangkok. Here I'll take a moment to wish all of the oppressed people of the world, especially those being silenced and persecuted under totalitarian rule a speedy resolution of their situations. May this coming New Year see Truth and Benevolence grow and continue to erode away the power of those who would seek to hurt the innocent, and those who would seek to hurt in general. Humanity deserves better than that!

Reflections on our Friends Behind Bars

2005-12-24T21:48:00.000+07:00

And Happy Holidays from Vietnam

Things are not looking good in Bangkok. Our friends have been in the detention centre for about 10 days. The early rumour that they'd be out in a matter of days is a definite no deal as now they've now revoked some (all? who knows?) of their visas. I think it's especially hard for our 4-year old neighbour, Kaixin, who usually spends her whole days running around our soi (lane way) with her gang of friends. It's not easy for Angela either, our 14-year old friend who was released the day of the arrests but whose parents are still locked up with things looking so uncertain. At the moment, there are no signs that they plan to let them out any time soon. We're being told that it has little to do with Thai law at this stage, and everything to do with orders from the Chinese embassy. Still, we have a lawyer and we're doing what we can.

Kaixin in happier days. She was terrified of
getting near the elephant until I sat with her.
This is in Pataya last January.

Jan is dealing with all of that in Bangkok and I am in Vietnam feeling a little helpless. I am sending all the good thoughts I have their way. We both were there all through the harassment, aggressive arrests and aftermath at the police station/detention centre. For the first time I felt like I had a glimpse of how things work in China. How good people (the police had been supportive and friendly previously) can turn into callous, heartless thugs when orders come from above. It all just seemed so groundless and irrational and completely unjust, utterly opposite to what's right and wrong. See the look on the guy's face in our last post? At the police station a couple of hours later, I had a long talk with him about his Buddhist beliefs - that was his gentle, devout side clearly not captured here.

Meanwhile I'm in Vietnam taking care of my 5-Star travellers. It's a really great group and all has gone relatively smoothly (minus one traveller who's 'missing in action' but not to worry). We're in Hanoi now and will move further south on Boxing Day. It's much colder than I'd imagined. Thus far my Vietnam purchases include a quilted jacket, sweater, gloves and scarf (I'm well-prepared in other ways, honestly!).

Hoan Kiem Lake, Lake of the Returned Sword,
the spiritual heart of Hanoi and hallmark of the old city.

As the story goes, in the 15th century, Emperor Le Thai drove the Chinese from Vietnam thanks to a help of a magic sword bestowed to him from heaven. Shortly after the victory, Le Thai was boating on this lake and a giant turtle emerged from the water, took his sword and swam back under. Thap Rua, Turtle Tower, is the tiny temple you see in the middle of the lake. They tell me there are a few massive 500 or 600 year-old turtles still living in the lake that come up to sun on the island when the weather changes. The very fine Sofitel where we're staying is a block from the lake, which takes maybe half an hour to circumnavigate.

Back Blogging As Bangkok "Situation" Unfolds

2005-12-21T15:11:00.000+07:00

It seems like an age since we last wrote in, and looking at the date, I can see that it's been over a week. Sorry for that! Things have gotten unusually busy, as on December 14 Thai police arrested eight of our practitioners while they were protesting in front of the Chinese embassy in Bangkok, protesting to condemn a recent double-rape of practitioners in China by a Chinese policeman.

Ms. Miao Miao and her daughter Nana are dragged by a
plainclothes policeman into a waiting police vehicle
[Click here for original photo]

Police openly admitted that the reason for the arrest was pressure from the Chinese embassy. Practitioners in China are silenced as a matter of state policy, so practitioners here felt it was their duty to speak for those who's voices could not be heard, especially since the women who had been violated expressly asked that their story be voiced to the world. A good update (though more has happened since then, can be found in the most recent Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group newsletter:

Issue 18: Chinese Embassy Directs Thai Police to Detain Falun Gong Practitioners and Their Children

For a link to the original case that the detained practitioners were protesting, see the FalunHR urgent appeal:

Serial Rape of Falun Gong Practitioners in Hebei -- WARNING, graphic photos of the results of torture -- but the world needs to know that this sort of thing is sanctioned in a country where the Olympics will he held in a couple of years.

Over the last while, Jan has gotten to know the Bangkok Immigration Detention Center quite well. According to Thai law, the arrests are "discretionary" meaning that police can still do the right thing and allow the refugee practitioners to have their voices heard. Ironically, being silenced is among the reasons that they came to Thailand in the first place.

A few days after the arrests, Cindy made her way to Vietnam to work as a tour guide -- no doubt there will be updates from her as the week progresses! Jan misses her support. Alot.

A Thai Long Weekend

2005-12-09T06:28:00.000+07:00

Last weekend was the King's Birthday long weekend in Thailand. A very big deal to be sure! Every year on his birthday the king delivers a much-listened to speech. It's often philosophical and contains subtle commentary on what he thinks about how the politicians are running his nation. It's a very serious matter and so is the traffic coming in and out of Bangkok at either end of the weekend.

We went down south to Ranong province with Pi Su, Jan's counterpart from his Canada World Youth program last year. It was rainy and beautiful. We'll tell you a wee more about it soon, but we're just about off for another couple of days to help with the CWY orientation camp -- the teams just arrived from Canada.

[Photo of the Day] Monkeying around on a Motorbike

This picture isn't particularly good, but it's a guy with a monkey on his bike! Good thing the monkey is watching the road. It's shot with Cindy's new camera, out the back window of our speeding car.

Bali's Bounty

2005-12-07T15:28:00.000+07:00

Marc-André Sabourin from Stoneham, Quebec wins the prize for correctly identifying the plant in our November 17th post. If you want to have another look before we reveal the answer to everyone, click here to review the photo, then read these hints:

1) The photo was taken in Bali.
2) Christopher Columbus is thought to be the first European to discover it in 1502.
3) The scientific name for it means “food of the gods” in Greek.
4) It’s commonly eaten at Christmas,
5) even more commonly eaten at Easter.

Everyone in unison now: CACAO! Which eventually becomes… CHOCOLATE!

This is a fascinating plant. Hack open a pod and find the surprise – clusters of ‘beans’ covered in a sweet, pale mucousy pulp that tastes absolutely delicious, but nothing like chocolate. Just gum, don’t bite because the beans taste even less like chocolate. Cindy got the hang of this living in Bali and wondered if there were any jobs at cacao plantations sucking the pulp off of beans. Perhaps not since the pulp is actually fermented off (buried in banana leaves under the tree in the romantic version; in crates in a factory more commonly). It’s the fermentation that turns a hard bitter seed into an aromatic chocolaty bean. After 2-10 days of fermenting, the beans are dried in the sun for a week or two, smelling increasingly delightful. Then the fun’s over for the farmer and off the beans go to overseas factories for roasting and processing.

You start to do a little research about chocolate and you learn all kinds of interesting things:

After roasting, the husk is removed leaving the inner “nib” that's basically unsweetened chocolate. You can eat it as is, but the usual procedure is to grind it into a creamy paste. Cacao butter is the fat; there’s liquid too called ‘liquor’ (non-alcoholic); cacao powder is left after the fat is pressed out.
A standard 100g 70% Chocolate bar contains 80 to 85 beans, the seeds from about 1.5 pods. A standard 30g 10% milk-chocolate bar contains 6 beans, or about 10% of a pod.
Most commercial cacao comes from giant corporate plantations where working conditions range from barely decent to completely inhuman.
Some companies try to avoid slave chocolate, but the five biggies – Nestlé, Hersheys, Mars, Cadbury & Phillip Morris – apparently don’t.
One ounce of milk chocolate, contains 6 mg of caffeine, slightly more than what’s in a cup of decaf coffee.

Because we still haven't gotten around to writing about our time in Bali. Here are some pictures of Bali's bounty.

Rice terraces - prbably the most typical scene of Bali. Rice is not just a staple, it's at the heart of the island's culture. This is in Sulahan, Bangli, where Cindy lived during her Canada World Youth program in Bali.

Carefully hacking open a young coconut so we can drink its sweet water. Yum!

Here's another quiz that we just found the answer to. We were erroneously told this was coffee, another famous commodity from Bali, which clearly it isn't. But what is it?

Bangkok: Central World By Night

2005-11-29T00:16:00.000+07:00

[Photo of the Day] Central World

Prior to the terrorist attacks to a building of the same name in 2001, the building on the left in a chic part of Bangkok was known as the "World Trade Center." We came to catch a film in one of many cinemas nearby. Foreigners seem to love this area. Maybe it's the abundant air-conditioning?

At the Bangkok Refugee Center

2005-11-25T22:22:00.000+07:00

[Photo of the Day] Nepalese and Chinese child refugees in Thailand
dance to a lively Nepalese tune, while at a community event at the
Bangkok Refugee Center

More Great Entries

2005-11-23T06:18:00.000+07:00

You folks are clever. One of those wasn't even on our own list. Here they are:

INVALID DOVE PRODUCE

But so far no luck on the photo? Someone out there must be able to figure it out. We guarantee that most of you consume this plant on a regular basis. We certainly do!

Right now the Cindy & Jan team are temporarily separated. Not to worry, it's only for a few days. As this is being written, Jan is sailing through the open skies somewhere over the Pacific Ocean on his way back to Thailand from Toronto. Meanwhile, Cindy is enjoying a triumphant return to her old home in Yokohama, Japan. Just a three day sejourn but it's filling the sense with the sites, tastes, sounds and smells of the old country.

A perfect respite, Sankeien Garden, Yokohama. A visit to Japan is incomplete without quiet contemplation in a proper Japanese garden. Fortunately, Yokohama has one of the best.

Well done!

2005-11-17T23:56:00.000+07:00

We knew we had a clever readership. Both submissions have been approved by our pannel of judges. Here's two more for the list:

POLISH

PROJECT

And for those who prefer eye candy to brain fibre, we have a challenge for you too. The biggest fruit seen in this picture is about the size of Cindy's forearm. Do you know what it is?

Brain Strain Challenge

2005-11-13T23:55:00.001+07:00

Here's a little contest to challenge the creative smarts of our faithful readers.

Have a look at the words below
What trait is common?
Do you know?

WINDY

MINUTE

OBJECT

The English language has its quirks
Which creates some fun
In how it works

Twist your mind up and down
Think some more
You'll come around

If "Ah ha!" you've hit the key
Don't spill the beans!
Instead let's see

If you can add a word that fits
Send it over
We'll judge your wits

If taxing mind games aren't your calling
Look instead
At pretty water falling

High Profile Chinese Defence Lawyer Shut Down

2005-11-06T19:50:00.000+07:00

This will be perhaps the first time that we will publish an entire article from a news website, and we don't want to make a habit of it, but this one is really worth a good read. There are more and more Chinese citizens who are openly standing up against corruption and Rule of Might (as opposed to Rule of Law). Many argue that change in China can only come from within China, and it is beginning to look more and more like that is what is taking place. The Chinese people are speaking with a louder and louder voice.

It is important to remember that apart from some corrupt CCP officials that are clinging desperately to power in China, there are many Gao Zhishengs, people with scruples who make up the heart and soul of China. We support and laud your efforts! Read Gao Zhisheng's original letter to the Chinese leadership here.

China Shutters Prominent Lawyer's Firm
Rights Activist Had Refused to Disavow Letter Defending Religion, Falun Gong

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 6, 2005; Page A15

SHANGHAI, Nov. 5 -- Judicial authorities in Beijing have shut down the law firm of a prominent civil rights lawyer after he refused to withdraw an open letter urging President Hu Jintao to respect freedom of religion and stop persecuting members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Gao Zhisheng, among the most daring of a generation of self-trained lawyers who have been pushing the Chinese government to obey its own laws, said that the Beijing Bureau of Justice ordered his firm suspended for one year on Friday. The move came just hours after he filed an appeal on behalf of an underground Protestant pastor accused of illegally printing Bibles and other Christian literature.

According to Gao, the government said the firm was being suspended because it had failed to register with the authorities after moving into a new office this year. But he said the action followed his refusal to renounce the open letter to Hu and withdraw from politically sensitive cases as demanded by officials during a series of recent meetings.

Gao said that his firm notified the government when it moved but that officials refused to let the firm register at the new address.

"We're very angry," Gao said by phone Saturday. "By doing this, the Chinese Communist Party is demonstrating it defies all laws, human and divine. They are saying that anyone who believes in law, who criticizes the political system, who exposes crimes against the people, will be targeted."

The closure comes as officials crack down on religion, press freedoms and other civil liberties in China, and confirms that Hu's government is also willing to take action to restrict the growing influence of members of China's budding legal profession. Lawyers such as Gao have been at the forefront of a campaign to inform citizens of their rights under laws that are often ignored by the government and to help them assert those rights in court.

Gao said he planned to fight his firm's suspension at a formal hearing next week.

In an Oct. 18 letter addressed to Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao that he posted on the Internet and distributed widely by e-mail, Gao described several cases he had investigated involving Falun Gong practitioners who have been detained, sent to labor camps and tortured. In one case, he said, a man was hanged from overhead pipes until his legs rotted.

In another case, he said, police tracked down and arrested a practitioner, a college sophomore, after he posted a note on the Internet announcing his resignation from the Communist Youth League.

Under the direction of Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, the Chinese government in July 1999 banned Falun Gong as an "evil cult" and has all but crushed it in an often violent campaign involving the arrests of thousands of people. As practitioners have been released from labor camps in recent years, Gao said, the government has renewed its brutal campaign.

"The persecution of Falun Gong compatriots by some local officials has already reached the point where they are doing whatever they please," Gao wrote in the open letter. "We cannot accept these brazenly inhumane, savage atrocities to occur in the society of mankind in the 21st century."

"This evil catastrophe did not begin with you, but the catastrophe has continued while you two have led the government," he told Hu and Wen.

Gao also urged the government to accept that a revival of religious faith in China was inevitable. In addition to working on behalf of Falun Gong members, Gao is one of several lawyers who have volunteered to defend Cai Zhuohua, the pastor of a house church in Beijing who has been jailed on charges of "illegal business practices" for printing and distributing hundreds of thousands of Bibles. The Bush administration has expressed concern about Cai, who was arrested with several other Christian figures in September 2004.

Gao has been under pressure from the authorities for months. Government officials recently demanded that he withdraw from two politically sensitive cases: a citizen effort to impeach the chief of Taishi village in southern China's Guangdong province and a landmark lawsuit brought by thousands of private investors accusing officials in northern Shaanxi province of seizing oil wells from them worth as much as $1 billion.

How Could This Be Canada tops Google News

2005-11-05T20:36:00.000+07:00

We recently received word that on November 3, the article How Could This Be Canada? that we wrote for The Epoch Times topped the Kashechewan news topic on the Google News Canada front page.

Schoolchildren in Kashechewan circa 1975. (from Epoch Times article)

We're not sure how Google rankings work exactly, but we're very happy that many people may have had a chance to read about the difficult realities of life of many First Nations people in Canada!